The North American brands and retailers’ group has decided to conduct fresh inspections of their listed readymade garment factories to ensure the structural safety of the units after an earthquake and its aftershocks jolted the country on Saturday. The platform, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, has assembled a team of structural engineers to visit each building where there is a concern. The Alliance in a news release on Sunday said the earthquake and its aftershocks should be taken as an indication of just how difficult it could be to ensure the structural safety of buildings in an earthquake zone. Although the Alliance has not seen immediate damage at their listed readymade garment factories in Bangladesh, the initiative think that does not mean that those buildings are structurally sound following the aftershocks. ‘Fresh inspections must now be executed to ensure the structural safety of factories, and we have assembled a team of structural engineers, led by our Chief Safety Officer, to visit each building where there is a concern within the next 48 hours,’ Alliance said. The retailers’ group expressed its condolences to the victims of earthquake in Nepal where more than 2,000 people died. ‘We extend our deepest condolences to earthquake victims and their families, and we will continue to take all steps possible to ensure that this tragedy does not result in injury or loss of life in Bangladesh garment factories,’ the Alliance said. Following the earthquake Alliance has received several calls from workers concerned about cracks in factory buildings and the group has taken initiative to ensure that the owners of these factories evacuate workers immediately, if necessary, it said. ‘We are also taking a number of additional measures to work with each factory owner, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Government to ensure that all workers are safe,’ the retailers’ group said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers including Walmart and Gap, formed the Alliance undertaking a five-year plan, which set timelines and accountability for inspections and training and workers empowerment programmes. The Alliance started inspection in the garment factories in February 2014 and completed primary safety assessment of its listed 600 factories in July that year. The retailers’ group found immediate risk in 19 factories and sought decision from government-established review panel. The panel decided to close five factories fully, 12 partially and allow two to operate with reduced loads. The Alliance has set a target to complete all remediation requirements and final inspections of its 600 supplier factories in the country by July 2017.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114955/quake-prompts-alliance-to-go-for-fresh-inspections/#sthash.hqMJ4WNC.dpuf

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has declared a three-year programme for worker empowerment in Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector that caters for western users. Promoting labour rights, right to organise union and women’s empowerment in the export industry are avowed objectives of the agenda, announced on the occasion of the second anniversary of Rana Plaza tragedy. As per the announcement, the new worker-empowerment agenda aims to strengthen the capacity of independent workers’ organisations by empowering workers, particularly women workers, with the skills and support necessary to protect their rights, promote their interests and improve conditions in their workplace and community. This programme complements the existing global labour programme that trains workers on labour laws, provides legal support to workers, and assists them in organising and registering new unions. Since inception, this programme has registered nearly 300 new labour unions in the readymade garment industry, covering more than 65,000 workers, said a USAID press release Sunday. It said the announcement on the new programme coincides with the second anniversary of Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers and injured over 2,500. On this occasion, Jonathan Stivers, USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia, said USAID’s Worker Empowerment Program demonstrates the United States’ vigilance in promoting fundamental labour rights, including workplace safety and health, so tragedies such as Rana Plaza can be prevented in the future. “We have partnered with the Government of Bangladesh, international donors, and the garment industry to empower workers by giving them a real voice in this vital sector and to reform labor laws consistent with international standards.” The announcement also said the European Union and the United States, in close cooperation with the ILO, will remain closely engaged with the Government of Bangladesh in the spirit of partnership to continue their work together to ensure that economic growth and sustainable development go hand in hand with workers’ safety and rights.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/04/27/90443

Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) closed three buildings on Saturday in Narayanganj finding workers’ safety at risk, officials said. The three buildings that accommodated more than a dozen factories mainly produced apparel products including hosiery, knitwear and shirt collars for the local market. “We have closed the buildings due to cracks found there. It might have occurred due to the earthquakes,” DIFE Inspector (Narayanganj) Farhana Kabir told the FE. Being informed by Police that the buildings tilted, the DIFE with concerned magistrate sealed the three buildings, she said adding there was also existence of cracks. One building at the holding number 65/14, Nayamati, Narayanganj, housed about 16 factories, she said adding most of them did not even have a name and they produced hosiery and other products. When asked she said the factories were announced closed immediately after the earthquake and they could not get detailed information about the remaining two buildings-holding number 65/20 and 65/22. None of the two buildings’ authorities could be contacted till Sunday, she added. Meanwhile, a good number of garment workers in different industrial belts especially in Dhaka, Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj were injured while rushing out in panic during Sunday’s earthquake. “Some 100-150 workers in different industrial zones were injured when they rushed to go out from the factory buildings in panic,” Industrial Police Director General Abdus Salam said. They came out from the factories at noon and did not join the workplace, he added. 50 per cent of the production remained suspended during Saturday and Sunday due to the earthquake panic and most of the factories especially in Ashulia and Gazipur remained closed, Md Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/04/27/90463

Japan government has taken an initiative to make vulnerable building of the country’s garments factories safe for the RMG workers through conducting retrofitting, a technology to make vulnerable building jolt resistant.Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future,” Senior Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Hiroyuki Tomita said in a seminar at a city hotel here.The Project Capacity Development of Natural Disaster Resistant techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings (CNCRP), implemented by Public Works Department (PWD) with technical support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organised the seminar titled “Development of Safer Building. Overcoming the Tragedy of Rana Plaza Incident”.Under CNCRP, a team of Japanese experts has been transferring retrofitting technology to the engineers of PWD and other public and private organisations since 2011. Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it.The JICA High official said the Japanese experts have already started their work to do retrofit to two RMG factories initially and the JICA will implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country.In a presentation JICA’s Assistant Programme Officer Kaniz Fatema said after tragic incident of Rana plaza, JICA took a programme titled “RMG Sector Safe Environment Project” and created a Taka 100 crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers.Under the programme, JICA requested the RMG owners to assess their factories building as well as to take the opportunity of the provided JICA fund to make the building strengthen. As per the JICA’s call a total of 300 RMG factories applied for being assessed and of these factories, 214 were selected for the assessment by the CNCRP.Of the 214 RMG factories, we found 74 percent have no legal construction permit or structural drawing, Kaniz said adding, even 65 percent of the buildings, those have legal permit documents and structural drawing, do not comply standard set by Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC).The CNCRP project selected two factories and taken initiative to conduct retrofitting by providing the owners soft loan of 850,000 and 600,000 US dollar respectively.”If we only consider to do retrofit to only those 26 percent of the country’s total RMG factories that have legal construction permit and structural design, it will need 1.17 billion US dollar,” she said.In another presentation, JICA expert team leader Fumio Kaneko said there is a concept that retrofitting is very expensive and it is not viable for economy like Bangladesh.But it is totally wrong. Usually it only costs 10-30 percent of new construction. Kaneko said Bangladesh is at a high risk of earthquake as the country has not experienced any major earthquake since the 19th century and most of the buildings in Bangladesh are works of masonry that increases the risk further.For example if 300,000 buildings are in Dhaka, 150,000 buildings will be damaged by a moderate earthquake, he said.”The Rana Plaza tragedy was indeed a wake-up call for us. It is calculated that even reinforced concrete (RC) buildings are 3-5 times more vulnerable to those buildings in Japan,” he said.PWD Chief Engineer Md. Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan spoke as the chief guest while CNCRP project director Engr Md. Ahsan Habib gave welcome speech.JICA Expert Deputy team leader J Matsuo, Yuko Nakagawa of JET, Professor Y. Nakano of Tokyo University, Professor M. Maeda and Professor M. Ubaura of Tohoku University and former CNCRP PD Engineer M Sikder made separate presentations in two technical sessions.

Source: https://www.observerbd.com/2015/04/25/85533.php

The Japanese government has taken an initiative to make vulnerable building of the country’s garments factories safe for the RMG workers through conducting retrofitting, a technology to make vulnerable building jolt resistant. ‘Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future,’ Japan International Cooperation. Agency senior representative Hiroyuki Tomita said in a seminar in a city hotel on Saturday. The project capacity development of natural disaster resistant techniques of construction and retrofitting for public buildings, implemented by public works department with technical support of JICA organised the seminar titled ‘development of safer building: overcoming the tragedy of Rana Plaza incident’. The JICA senior official said the Japanese experts had already started their work to do retrofit to two RMG factories initially and the JICA would implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country. In a presentation JICA assistant programme officer Kaniz Fatema said after tragic incident of Rana plaza, JICA took a programme titled ‘RMG sector safe environment project’ and created a Tk 100 crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers. In another presentation, JICA expert team leader Fumio Kaneko said there was a concept that retrofitting was very expensive and it was not viable for economy like Bangladesh. But it is totally wrong. Usually it only costs 10-30 per cent of new construction. PWD chief engineer Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan spoke as chief guest while CNCRP project director Md Ahsan Habib gave the welcome speech. JICA expert deputy team leader J Matsuo, Yuko Nakagawa of JET, professor Y Nakano of Tokyo University, professor M Maeda and professor M Ubaura of Tohoku University and former CNCRP PD M Sikder made separate presentations in two technical sessions.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114695/jica-to-provide-assistance-for-making-vulnerable-rmg-buildings-safe/#sthash.9hEk7lxd.dpuf

An earthquake that jolted the country just past Saturday noon hampered production in about 50 per cent readymade garment factories across the country, said industry people. The authorities in many factories had to suspend their operations as their workers, who rushed out of the factories for safety, did not come back in the consequence of the tremor aftershock, they said. A day after the second anniversary of shocking Rana Plaza building collapse that killed scores of garment workers the quake sent a shockwave among the factory employees. Following the earthquake, a rumour spread among the workers that many factory buildings had developed cracks and Rana Plaza-like disaster might occur, a factory owner told New Age in the evening. ‘So, many workers left their workplaces and did not return for the day,’ he said. In some areas in the city, factory owners declared holiday for the day following the earthquake. The factory owners were generous to declare the holiday as they did not want to take any risk of casualties, said another owner. Along with the garment workers, thousands of people were seen coming out of buildings and establishments hurriedly during the tremor in the capital, although the presence of people was thin in commercial buildings and other offices in the city as the day was a weekly holiday. More than hundred people including garment workers sustained injuries in the capital and on the outskirts of Dhaka while rushing out for quick exit when the tremor hit, according to different sources. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Sahidullah Azim told New Age that about half of the workers in about 50 per cent readymade garment factories did not come back to their workplaces after the lunch break as the quake created serious panic among them. ‘It is not abnormal that the factory workers will try to rush out of the buildings during earthquake and the loss of production for the sudden natural calamity is not considerable as safety should be the first priority,’ Azim said. He also said that no cracks developed in any factory buildings and no building tilted because of the earthquake. MA Rahim, director of Dulal and Brothers, said that following the earthquake they suspended work in their units and the workers were asked to join after the lunch break, but some of the employees did not come back. Most of the workers came back but they cannot resume work due to panic that a section of people spread rumour that tremor might hit again at 4:00pm, he said.

Source: https://newagebd.net/114699/tremor-panic-hits-rmg-production/#sthash.ucAM9TUc.dpuf

Japan government has taken an initiative to make vulnerable building of the country’s garments factories safe for the RMG workers through conducting retrofitting, a technology to make vulnerable building jolt resistant, reports BSS. “Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future,” Senior Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Hiroyuki Tomita said at a seminar in the capital yesterday. The Project Capacity Development of Natural Disaster Resistant techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings (CNCRP), implemented by Public Works Department (PWD) with technical support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organised the seminar titled “Development of Safer Building Overcoming the Tragedy of Rana Plaza Incident”. Under CNCRP, a team of Japanese experts has been transferring retrofitting technology to the engineers of PWD and other public and private organisations since 2011. Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it. The JICA High official said the Japanese experts have already started their work to do retrofit to two RMG factories initially and the JICA will implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country. In a presentation JICA’s Assistant Programme Officer Kaniz Fatema said after tragic incident of Rana plaza, JICA took a programme titled “RMG Sector Safe Environment Project” and created a Tk 100 crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers. Under the programme, JICA requested the RMG owners to assess their factories building as well as to take the opportunity of the provided JICA fund to make the building strengthen. As per the JICA’s call a total of 300 RMG factories applied for being assessed and of these factories, 214 were selected for the assessment by the CNCRP. Of the 214 RMG factories, we found 74 per cent have no legal construction permit or structural drawing, Kaniz said adding, even 65 per cent of the buildings, those have legal permit documents and structural drawing, do not comply standard set by Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC). The CNCRP project selected two factories and taken initiative to conduct retrofitting by providing the owners soft loan of 850,000 and 600,000 US dollar respectively. “If we only consider to do retrofit to only those 26 per cent of the country’s total RMG factories that have legal construction permit and structural design, it will need 1.17 billion US dollar,” she said.

Source: https://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256015:japan-to-make-earthquake-resistant-rmg-units&catid=110:business-others&Itemid=156

About fifty workers were injured at a factory in Savar as they tried to hurriedly leave the building during yesterday’s earthquake. Several vehicles were also vandalised on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway and the road was blocked for some time by locals after the workers were allegedly obstructed from leaving the compound by security men. Police later fired bullets and tear gas shells to bring the situation under control. SM Kamruzzaman, officer in-charge (OC) of Savar Police told The Independent that some workers were injured while getting off hurriedly from the ten-storied factory building of Al-Muslim group. But no one died in the incident. An eyewitness told The Independent that the Al-Muslim Group factory at Kornopara in Ulail shook during yesterday’s earthquake at noon. As workers panicked and tried to leave the factory, security personnel obstructed them from leaving the factory building. Shamsul Haque, a labour union leader, alleged that the factory authorities did not give proper attention to the injured workers and confined him and seized his mobile phone which he had used to record a video of the injured persons. The security in-charge of the factory said he was unable to give any details. No official of the factory was found to comment on the incident. Workers said they tried to escape from the factory as the earthquake shook the building. But security officials did not allow them to leave. The workers then got engaged in an altercation with security guards and several female workers got hurt as panic-stricken workers rushed. Later, some workers broke the main entrance of the factory. They also threw brick chips and stones at factory officials. A man who came there looking for his wife, a worker at the factory, received bullet injury during the clash, said workers union leader Shamsul. Rabiul Al-Amin of Savar Fire Service and Civil Defence said, “We did not get any information about casualties. The ten storied building of Al-Muslim Group has adequate fire fighting and earthquake emergency evacuation measures.” About 18,000 workers, mostly female, are employed by AKM Knit Wear, Pacific Blue Jeans Wear, Al-Muslim Washing, Al-Muslim Garments Accessories, Al-Muslim Yarn Dyeing and Al-Muslim Builders Limited, housed in that 10-storied building. Dr. Anwarul Quader of Enam Medical College Hospital said about 50 workers were admitted to the hospital, but no one was seriously hurt.

Source: https://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256081:50-rmg-workers-hurt-while-leaving-building&catid=135:metropolitan-dhaka&Itemid=174

The labour ministry has failed to introduce fair price card for garment workers due to delay in approving a proposal by the finance ministry.This despite the fact that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had made the announcement during a visit to the ministry of labour and employment last year. After receiving a proposal from the labour ministry, the finance ministry asked it to identify the garment workers and take the opinion of the factory owners on the proposed fair price card, sources in the labour ministry said. The labour ministry sought subsidy to introduce the card for about 40 lakh apparel workers, 80 per cent of whom are women, the sources added. Under the fair price card, the labour ministry proposed to give rice at Tk. 24 per kg, flour at Tk. 22, edible oil at Tk. 55.50, sugar at Tk. 4 and lentil (masur dal) at Tk. 103 per kg to low-income workers of the export-oriented readymade garment factories. State minister for labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu told The Independent that the factory owners refused to provide fair price cards unless the government provided the required quantity of food grain. The state minister said they are planning to assess the quantity of food grain and other essentials required by a worker under the fair price card in a month. “We will also prepare a list of workers in the export-oriented garment factories for introducing the fair price card,” he added. Chunnu said they have held talks with the food ministry and it has asked them to send a “concrete proposal” to implement the government’s plan soon. The factory owners have accepted the fair price card system, but said it should be implemented under government management, he added.

Source: https://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256025:ministry-fails-to-introduce-fair-price-card-for-apparel-workers&catid=132:backpage&Itemid=122

Victims of the Rana Plaza collapse have been paid 70 per cent of the $16.4 million or Tk 1.26 billion aid funds while the Trust Fund seeks $3.0 million more to dole out. A spokesman said Saturday the total amount the Rana Plaza Trust Fund stood at $27 million, including the payments received from the Prime Minister’s Office and foreign retailer Primark. The amount is inclusive of a latest commitment of $3 million in contribution to the fund. However, he said, there is still a shortage of $3.0 million from the estimated requirement of $30 million to compensate the victims and their families. “Good news is that we have got commitment of getting more $3.0 million,” Executive Commissioner of the Rana Plaza Claims Administration (RPCA) Dr Mojtaba Kazazi said, without naming the contributors. Mr Kazazi was addressing a press briefing in the city a day after the second anniversary of the tragedy in which at least 1,138 people, mostly garment workers, were killed and many maimed for life. Two other commissioners — Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Sultana Kamal — were also present. So far, the amounts either received in the Trust Fund or spent otherwise for the benefit of the workers came approximately to $24 million. It also includes the payments made by the Prime Minister’s Office and the global brand Primark. From the PMO, some $2.4 million has so far been disbursed while Primark has committed to pay $6.3 million to the 600 workers of New Wave Bottom that made apparels for the buyer. The brand has also committed $1.0 million directly to the Trust Fund. “Some Tk 760 million, equivalent to $9.85 million, has so far been paid to Rana Plaza injured workers, dependants of the deceased and the missing people direct from the Trust Fund,” Mr Kazazi said. The amount is 70 per cent of the total awards approved by the Commissioners, after deduction of amounts paid to the injured and families of the deceased and missing workers from the Prime Minister Welfare Fund and initial payment of Tk 50,000 each from the Trust Fund. The total amount for all issued awards is approximately Tk 1.26 billion (Tk 126 crore) or $16.4 million, he said, adding that the paid-out $9.85 million is 70 per cent of the total $16.4 million. The payments were made in several phases: 40 per cent of the total payments had been made in five separate instalments since September till December 2014 and the rest 30 per cent on April 8 last. “The remaining 30 per cent of awards will be paid to the claimants as soon as funds become available at the Trust Fund,” he said. The compensation to the beneficiaries is calculated on the basis of ILO convention 121. A total of 2,871 claims have been received from the injured workers and dependants of the deceased and the missing. Out of them, 2,839 claims have been reviewed by the RPCA, approved by the Commissioners and authorized by the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee. The remaining 32 claims with some 20-30 additional deceased claims that may yet be filed will be included in the final instalment.

Source: https://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/04/26/90312