Garment industry owners must be serious about workers’ welfare and rights, otherwise they may miss the target of $50 billion garment exports by 2021, an economist warned Sunday. “The country may not achieve its goal of earning $50 billion by 2021 without ensuring workers’ rights,” said professor of economics of Dhaka University M M Akash. His warning came at a discussion programme commemorating the Rana Plaza tragedy styled ‘Action creates change’, organised by BRAC in the capital. Terming Rana Plaza collapse a ‘wake-up call’ for the country’s every industry, he also suggested framing rules to increase the rate of profit-share to $0.05 (5 cent) from existing $0.025 cent against each dollar export for labour welfare fund. Joint secretary of the ministry of labor and employment Khondaker Mostan Hossain, additional inspector general at the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Md. Anwar Ullah, and Honorary executive director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) Sara Hossain spoke on the occasion, among others. In his speech, M M Akash said the collapse of Rana plaza was not merely an accident, but “a disaster” made by factory owners’ callousness. “The workers were forced to work in the vulnerable building on April 24, 2013, when the building collapsed,” he said. He also said the authorities faced trouble while compensating the victim workers and the family members of the deceived. Quoting the suo moto rule by a high court following the incident, Mr Akash said ‘greed’ and ‘callousness’ of factory owners resulted in the loss of more than one thousand lives. The high court bench ordered a panel of experts on May 6, 2013 to determine the appropriate compensation rate for the victims and submit its report within a month. However, political influence and reluctance of garment owners delayed the report submission deadline, said Mr Akash, who is a member of the committee. Mostan Hossain said the fund now reached Tk 2.0 billion, which was only at Tk 4.2 million in 2013. He said the ministry was going to implement a project for national employment insurance scheme with the support of German government and the International Labor Organisation (ILO). Anwar Ullah said the government had taken several initiatives to prevent untoward industrial incident and ensure labor rights following the Savar tragedy through DIFE and other government agencies. The government is considering establishing an academy for occupational health and safety, introduce injury insurance scheme and sectoral assessment of hazardous factories, especially through government’s funding, said the DIFE official, who is also a joint secretary. Sara Hossain said some the readymade garments (RMG) factory owners were still not serious about workers’ rights. “Some of the garment owners believe the Rana Plaza chapter is closed now, which is very unfortunate,” she said. She praised the High Court’s role for paying attention to the issue on its own initiative. “The owner of the collapsed building Sohel Rana wouldn’t have been arrested due to his political connections, if the high court didn’t issue order,” she said. Sara Hossain also said the stakeholders were required to be accountable for such incidents, they could not deny their roles only by providing donation and compensation. She also urged the stakeholders to establish a monument to pay homage to the departed workers at the Rana Plaza. On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza building, which housed some apparel units, collapsed leaving at least 1,130 people dead and around 2,500 injured.
