The apex apparel body-BGMEA-Saturday alleged that apparel-makers are facing different types of harassment in getting services from various agencies including customs and city corporations. It also requested the government to take necessary measures to stop harassment. “We are harassed in different ways. We are being charged holding tax when we go for new licence or its renewal and have to pay up to Tk 1.2 million which earlier cost only Tk 10,000,” Md Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, alleged. Unnecessary obstacles were also created by many including customs, he added. The BGMEA president was speaking at the BGMEA-BUFT Journalism Fellowship Award-2015 programme held at its headquarters in the city. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed was the chief guest and Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique was special guest while BGMEA vice presidents Faruque Hassan, SM Mannan Kochi, Mahmud Hasan Khan and Mohammed Nasir, among others, were present at the event. Six journalists from electronic and print media, both English and Bengali and online radio were awarded the fellowship.  “If the government can not stop harassment, give us six months to one year so that we can gradually lay off our businesses,” he added. He also demanded reduction of corporate tax to 10 per cent from 35 per cent saying no investment would be made unless the corporate tax is reduced.

Production in garment factories in major industrial hubs has been hampered over the last three days due to stoppage of gas supply from CNG stations. In the absence of supply from the main lines, the garment makers in Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur were running their units by diverting gas from CNG stations, said Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. But in the last three days, that has stopped, he said, adding that the sector might not reach its target of hitting $50 billion in exports by 2021 if the gas crisis continues.“We hope that the government will supply gas with adequate pressure to factories soon so that production is not hampered,” Rahman said at the BGMEA-BUFT Journalism Fellowship award at the BGMEA auditorium in DhakaHe also touched upon the corporate tax rate of 20 percent for the sector. “The rate is very high. The government should reduce the corporate tax to 10 percent if we want to attract fresh investment in the garment sector. ”Rahman also complained that the garment makers are becoming victims of harassments in case of trade licence renewal as some officials demand bribes from them.Similarly, some officials in the government’s customs department also harass the garment makers.We are becoming the victims of unnecessary harassment in almost every government office. If you do not stop the harassment, we will stop garment business in Bangladesh.”Rahman said 35 garment factories have already been certified by the US Green Building Council, while another 150 are waiting to receive their green certification from the agency. Foreigners are taking away billions of dollars from Bangladesh every year in the absence of local experts in the sector, he said, adding that the BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology has been producing a lot of skilled manpower to fill in the gap of mid-level technical people“It is true that if the factory owners do not get the gas timely, they will not be able to reach the target of exporting $50 billion of garment items by 2021,” said Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. Ahmed suggested the BGMEA leasers find a way to seek a review of the decision of demolishing the BGMEA building as the Supreme Court has already gave a verdict.Primarily, he was annoyed with the factory inspections by the Accord and Alliance and after the completion of primary inspection they found less than 2 percent of the factories to be risky. This year, six journalists from print, electronic and radio media received the BGMEA-BUFT Journalism Fellowship. Each awardee received Tk 1 lakh as the fellowship prize.

It seems that in the Bangladesh garment industry today, the only way to make a profit or a decent livelihood is to work more and more hours. Average work hours in apparel factories currently stand at 66-70 hours per week. However, during peak production periods, times when buyers increase their purchase orders due to seasonal demands in their countries, working hours can increase to 80-90 hours weekly. Besides the effect on the life of the worker and their families, the factory suffers too. There is clear evidence that factories with excessive hours have the lowest worker retention rates. High turnover in personnel is costly. Every month, these factories have to hire dozens of new workers just to keep up with a full workforce and meet their production demands. Think of the time and cost implications in recruitment and training alone, not to mention the cost of terminating old work contracts. Furthermore, study after study shows that after ten hours of work a day, productivity from a worker begins to significantly decrease. Look at the daily production records of garment factories worldwide and you will immediately notice that in the first half of the day the workers’ output far exceeds what they can produce in the afternoon. Once evening comes, everyone is just wasting time. Working excessive hours is also a violation of the Bangladesh Labour Act’s hours work standards, and violates the spirit of the International Labour Organisation’s hours of work conventions.  However, all of us who work in and with the industry know that tackling this problem is complicated.  To begin to address the issue and give people some well-deserved rest, requires an understanding of supply chain pressures on the factory, collaboration from top factory management, the buyers who source from these factories, and yes, the workers themselves. The first step is to acknowledge that working more than ten hours a day is a problem, and that in Bangladesh the industry is trapped in a vicious cycle of trying to meet the demands of buyers who continue to demand shorter and shorter lead times and strict on time delivery standards. This is further exacerbated by factory owners who feel the only way they can increase profits is by adding more and more production and by workers who have been conditioned to wages that can support their needs only if they work more hours.  Solving this problem requires collaboration between buyers who are sourcing from the factory and the factory itself. It cannot just be factory owner’s responsibility alone. As long as buyers overload factories and make demands for short lead times that do not leave the factories any options the problem will persist. Buyers need to look more closely at capacity before they put production into a facility. Many will say they do but when there are multiple buyers sourcing from a factory it is hard. You cannot see what orders other buyers have put in while factories are unwilling to say through the fear that they may lose orders. Better methods are needed of keeping track of factory capacity. If for example, buyers know that if there is only room for 50,000 pieces but they need 100,000 then they would need to look elsewhere. Factory owners will understandably say that they will raise capacity to meet any order, but if that is the case, capacity needs to be built before and not after orders are placed. Rather than looking at the total number of pieces a factory says it can produce buyers should consider how many minutes it takes to produce one piece. If a factory has a thousand workers and they work 48 hours a week then you know what the capacity will be and whether lead-times can be met without working all night. Production efficiency should also be increased. Rather than simply piling on the hours, the skills of workers and middle management should be enhanced. Upgrading certain equipment can further boost capacity and output. Improving work processes such as line balancing, conducting loss time analysis, and improving HR systems will make a huge difference to the bottom line. Business owners will often say that workers are demanding the overtime as they need the income and will quit if they do not get the hours. This may well be true, but in reality what workers are doing is not demanding more hours but higher wages. The low cost of production is a major competitive advantage for the Bangladesh industry. Yet there is considerable discussion over whether the minimum wage is a living wage. Many say that if wages rise the industry will shrink however evidence worldwide points to the fact that raising wage levels does not lead to job losses. Workers want higher incomes but they should seek to achieve this through negotiation and collective bargaining rather than working 80-90 hours a week. However, in order to get there, we need stronger social dialogue environments. The labour inspectorate can of course seek to limit excessive hours. Yet aggressive enforcement is not always the answer. It may force factories to recognise that they could get into trouble but it is not the way forward. We need solutions which help the industry, not punish it. Doing too many hours is no good. Buyers and factories must address this challenge together for it is an industry-wide issue that extends far beyond the factory walls. The writer is the programme manager of the ILO/IFC Better Work Programme which seeks to enhance compliance in the garment sector while improving productivity. He can be contacted at vanegas@ilo.org.

Bangladesh apparel industry needs to work on its market strategies for the future as after getting the status of a developing nation in 2021, the country will lose the export benefits it currently enjoys being a least-developed nation. As of now, it has zero-duty benefit to the European Union (EU) and Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) to some nations. Apparel exports to EU will face a duty of 12.5 per cent after 2021. International buyers who currently import apparel from Bangladesh are also likely to work out strategies with Bangladesh’s long term plans, said Johan Frishell, Swedish ambassador to Bangladesh at a discussion during the fifth Bangladesh Denim Expo in Dhaka, according to Bangladeshi media reports. Bangladesh can continue to enjoy zero-duty benefits to EU even after 2021, if it attains the GSP Plus status. It can be attained by maintaining international standards in human rights, environmental balance and curbing corruption. Long-term plans are also likely to ensure a sustainable business for Bangladesh and offer long-term predictability to international buyers. The country should also carry out bilateral negotiations with buyers from EU, Canada and the US to continue receiving duty-free benefits after it becomes a developing nation, said Frishell. Thomas Prinz, German ambassador to Bangladesh suggested that the country should focus on products that are socially and environmentally compliant. Roger Hubert, regional head of Bangladesh and Pakistan of H&M is of the opinion chemical, water and waste management should be a priority for the Bangladeshi government and entrepreneurs. He added that mandatory industrial accidental and life insurance should also be in place for the skilled labour force. At least 2,000 new garment factories will have to be established in Bangladesh to achieve the target of exporting garments worth $50 billion by the end 2021 and the country is likely to achieve it, said Arshad Jamal Dipu, chairman, Tusuka Group. Najeeb Sayed, country manager and dress director of PVH Bangladesh believes that marketing is important for achieving this target and he also suggested increasing the efficiency level of the workers to maximise production and reduce costs.

Thirteen workers died in a fire at a suspected illegal garment factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital early yesterday as they slept in the workshop. The blaze started in the early hours of the morning on the ground floor of the narrow residential building, which was being used to make fake leather jackets, on the eastern edge of New Delhi. Residents rushed to the factory after they heard screams from those trapped inside as the fire quickly spread to the first floor where most of the workers were sleeping, eyewitness Shahabudin Ali said.

“We started dousing the fire ourselves with buckets and garden pipes,” he said.  “The fire department officials reached only two hours after the fire. “The police confirmed that 13 people died, adding that the fire was likely caused either by a short circuit or a cigarette. “The fire broke out at a factory in a residential area of Sahibabad around 4:30 am in the morning. Thirteen people, who were sleeping there have died and another two or three people are getting treated at the hospital,” Bhagwat Singh, local police spokesman told AFP. Police superintendent Salman Taj said that three of the dead were burnt to death while the others died of smoke inhalation. Residents and a local fire officer said that two of the workers survived by jumping from the building’s balcony. “The two of them woke up by chance and say they screamed for others to wake up while running towards the terrace but others didn’t wake up, perhaps it was already late,” local fire officer Abbas Hussain said. Hussain described piles of leather stacked in the building’s narrow staircase and cramped workshop, adding that the factory was most likely illegal. “From what we see, there was nothing proper and the factory must surely not have been a legal one but we can say for sure only after a proper investigation,” Hussain said.Police superintendent Taj confirmed that the two building owners had been detained. South Asia’s lucrative garment industry has a particularly alarming safety record, with watchdogs saying safety rules are routinely flouted. A huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at a packaging factory just north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka left 25 people dead in September. In November 2012, at least 111 workers were killed when a devastating fire engulfed a nine-storey garment factory outside Dhaka. The accident was followed by an even bigger disaster six months later when 1,138 people died after a clothing factory complex collapsed, trapping more than 3,000 workers. The Rana Plaza tragedy triggered international outrage and put pressure on European and US clothing brands to improve pay and conditions at the factories that supply them. More image:

ThreadSol, an Indian software provider, is eyeing the business potential of Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry by providing its innovative solutions to help apparel-makers increase their efficiency by reducing material usage and production cost. “Bangladesh is now our main focus to expand our business with its growing garment industry,” Manasij Ganguli, founder and chief executive officer of ThreadSol, said in an interview with the FE on Thursday. Garment manufacturing is shifting from China ushering opportunity for the countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia, he said, adding that the production cost is still lower in Bangladesh than that of its rival countries. Even though Bangladesh is the second largest garment exporter in the world, the country unfortunately meets a larger share of fabric requirements through import as it is not a cotton producing country, he said. In the field of garment manufacturing, dealing with the waste of fabric is a major concern and the company has come up with a solution to deal with it, he explained. Fabric cost is about 60 to 70 per cent of the total production cost, Mr Ganguli said, adding that ThreadSol saves up to 10 per cent of fabric cost. “Our software helps garment manufacturers to estimate his or her fabric requirements accurately and buy exactly what is needed. No more, no less with least wastage.”   The solutions help generate the most suitable and optimised cut plan from millions of possible combinations in just one click, he noted, adding that it helps save fabric, increase cutting room productivity and reduce wastage. Once a manufacturing unit takes the solutions, wastage comes down to less than one per cent, he added. IntelloBuy, accurate material estimation solution, saves 10 per cent material cost at buying stage reducing workload and saves millions of dollars of material costs. IntelloCut, automated service, saves 10 per cent material at production level, minimise wastage level and maximise utilisation and IntelloTrace is an intelligent production management solution for comprehensive tracking. The company headquartered in Singapore is currently operating in 12 countries including Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Egypt. It opened its office in Dhaka last year and Pacific Jeans, Fakir Apparels and Epic Group are among the 25 Bangladeshi garment factories and clients of ThreadSol that save up to 10 per cent of fabric. The annual turnover of the company that went into operation two years back is nearly US$ 3.0 million. Now the company has a total of 95 clients. “We are growing 300 per cent year-on-year and want reach $ 100 million turnover within next five to six years,” Mr Ganguli said. “Business should remain hungry for growth and that is why we are here,” he added. The visiting CEO of ThreadSol, which participated in the fifth edition of the two-day Bangladesh Denim Expo ended on Wednesday, said they got good response from the expo.