The government has started taking punitive measures against non-compliant readymade garment factories which were inspected under a government-led and International Labour Organisation-supported initiative but failed to make any remediation progress.Recently, the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments suspended business licences of 219 RMG factories and requested Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association to stop issuance of utilisation declaration to the factories due to non-compliance.Against the backdrop, BGMEA and BKMEA are going to sit with their 219 member factories for deciding next course of action as severe safety risks are prevailing in the units.Leaders of BGMEA and BKMEA said that the DIFE sent letters to the trade bodies along with the factory lists mentioning that the units were vulnerable for the workers safety as the units failed to make any progress in remediation.According to officials of BGMEA and BKMEA, the two trade bodies would sit with their members separately and BGMEA on Thursday held a meeting with the authorities of 82 errant factories.A BGMEA official said that they received a list of 142 RMG factories from DIFE and the trade body would sit with the authorities of all factories to assess the real status regarding remediation work in the factories.‘In the first phase, we have held meeting today [Thursday] with 82 factories located in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj zones to know the problems the factory authorities are facing in fixing safety faults,’ the BGMEA official said.He said that the trade body would sit with the authorities of rest of the factories in Chattogram next week.After completing discussions with the factory authorities, BGMEA would make decision on the DIFE instruction, BGMEA officials said.‘We will take necessary measures regarding the factories which have failed to make required progress in remediation,’ Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, second vice-president of BKMEA, told New Age on Thursday.He said that the government prepared an escalation protocol for the factories inspected under the national initiative and the units having poor remediation progress would have to go through the protocol.Ehsan said that BKMEA would sit with the factory owners immediately to know the present status of the factories and the problems the factory authorities were facing in progressing remediation.According to the escalation protocol adopted by DIFE, if any RMG unit fails to ensure workplace safety as per the direction of the Remediation Coordination Cell, the factory would have to face closure.Before serving closure notice on a factory, RCC would take five steps including awareness building, issuing warning letter-1, warning letter-2, temporary suspension of business licence and not issuing utilisation declaration against the factory.According to DIFE officials, the 219 RMG factories inspected under the national initiative had already ignored the first four warnings and if the factories ignore the fifth stage of escalation protocol, they would have to face closure on safety ground.Following the Rana Plaza building collapse in April, 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, a total of 3,780 garment factories were assessed under the three initiatives — European retailers’ platform Accord, North American buyers’ platform Alliance and the government-led and ILO-supported national initiative.Out of the 3,780 garment factories, 1,549 were inspected under the national initiative. Of them, 531 were closed, 69 relocated and 193 transferred to Accord and Alliance lists.The factories that fall under the national initiative have completed 32 per cent of remediation works, while 11 factories have fixed 100 per cent safety faults, DIFE officials said.
