More than 300 ready-made garment (RMG) factories, inspected under the national initiative, are going to face various punishments, like – closure and suspension of export license, as they have failed to make required remedial progress until date, officials said. The Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) under the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE), in this regard, has already warned some 105 garment units of closure in line with its escalation protocol phase five. They also said the government will issue closure notice to the factories, if they fail to make progress within the set timeframe. Besides, the RCC put additional 197 factories in phase four of the escalation protocol. They might face temporary suspension of utilisation declaration (UD), issued by their respective trade-bodies, and suspension of bond license by bond commissionarate, the officials added. The MoLE on July 31 approved the escalation protocol, which is similar to punitive measures of the western retailers’ platforms – Accord and Alliance. It aims at expediting remediation works in the RMG factories, inspected under national initiative. The protocol spells out requirements for the units, not meeting corrective action plan deadlines to address safety non-compliances. If the factories are unwilling to comply with the requirements, the protocol sets out the process how the government and the industry partners will respond to them, following gradual harder steps leading to closure. As of September 19, a total of 393 factories remained in phase three, 197 in phase four (export license suspension), and 105 factories in phase five (received closure notice) under the escalation protocol, the RCC data showed. When asked, the RCC project director A K M Salehuddin told the FE on Thursday that they held meeting with the factories in phase five last month, and warned them of closure. “We have also sent a list of the 105 units to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) that has the authority to shut any industrial unit in this regard.” The RCC has sent another list of more than 100 factories to the DIFE to take measures related to suspension of UD, he added. The DIFE, in September 2018, issued separate letters to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). It asked the trade-bodies to stop UD declaration to 219 non-compliant RMG units following their poor safety remediation progress. Of them, 134 units were members of the BGMEA and 74 were members of the BKMEA. Responding to the DIFE letter, the BGMEA temporarily suspended issuing UD certificate to 51 non-compliant factories in June, sources said. Some 3,780 garment factories were assessed fire, electrical and structural integrity by Accord, Alliance and national initiative after the tragic Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people. Some 1,549 garment units, out of the 3,780, were inspected under national initiative, while about 531 units were closed, 69 relocated, and 193 transferred to Accord and Alliance lists. According to the government data, some 700 active factories that are under national initiative completed 38 per cent of structural, 39 per cent of electrical, and 34 per cent of fire remediation works.
