Speakers at a discussion in the capital on Monday criticized foreign buyers for not increasing the prices of apparel products of Bangladesh and taking any major step for improving the standard of life of garment workers. They also blamed the foreign buyers for doing ‘unethical business’ with the price of apparel products of Bangladesh. “A 5-dollar apparel product is sold at 25 dollars . .. we are talking about 5 dollars but we do not say anything about the remaining 20 dollars. There is injustice in the global goods supply system,” said noted economist Prof Rehman Sohban, chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). CPD, a civil society think-tank, and International Labour Organization jointly organized the discussion marking the 4th years of Rana Plaza collapse. On April 24, 2013, the eight-storey building, which housed five garment factories on the outskirts of capital Dhaka, collapsed.Rehman Sohban said such a big accident like Rana Plaza would not have taken place if there would have been good relations between the garment factory owners and workers and laid emphasis on building good relations between owners-workers for the welfare of the apparel sector. He suggested intensifying the ongoing reforms in the readymade garment sector and said the reforms will have to be implemented jointly by the buyers, factory owners and the government. Distinguished fellow of CPD Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said some apparel entrepreneurs winded up businesses after the Rana Plaza incident. Expected progress in the area of trade union, training and safe workplace did not take place, he said. Secretary of the labour and employment ministry Mikail Shipar said the government has implemented a number of programmes for improving the workplace safety and security in the garment sector after the Rana Plaza incident. He also said the workers who were affected in the incident were also given adequate support for their rehabilitation. Director of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments Shamsuzzaman Bhuiyan said his department has beefed up factory inspection activities massively after the Rana Plaza incident. BGMEA vice-president Mahmud Hasan Khan said it is not right that BGMEA does not want to allow trade union in the sector and there is trade union in 591 garment factories.
