Inspections a blessing for garment factories
Bangladesh should take the ongoing garment factory inspections by the engineers of Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh positively, as the initiative has been taken to strengthen the sector's safety standards.
The Accord recommended the review panel to order to close 18 factories, housed in four buildings. The review panel closed only 12 out of the 875 factories inspected as of yesterday.
The numbers indicate that the risk factor of the buildings is not as serious as thought after the Rana Plaza collapse, Alan Roberts, executive director for international operations of Bangladesh Accord Foundation, said in an interview.
“This is a very important positive message for the garment sector of Bangladesh,” Roberts said.
Engineers of the Accord, a platform of 180 retailers and brands, mainly European, have performed three kinds of inspections, including fire, electrical and structural checks in 1,600 garment factories.
The formal inspection of the factories began on February 20.
“Bangladesh is still very competitive to the international retailers and brands, and it will continue to be so for a long time,” said Roberts, who previously served as a global sourcing director for some international retailers in the country since 1986.
The steady growth of garment exports despite domestic odds such as Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions fire indicates that the sector remained insulated from all internal and external adversaries.
Easily trainable and abundant cheap labour is another important factor for higher growth of garment items in Bangladesh, Roberts said.
The salaries of garment workers are still low compared to other countries, even after the hike in December last year, he added.
Roberts explained the recent criticism of inspection by different corners. He said many people, including garment makers, are saying that the inspection is a conspiracy to destroy the sector.
“It is absolutely false and wrong conception of the people as we are very transparent in our operations,” he said. For maintaining its transparency and credibility, the Accord publishes its major findings on its website, so that the people can see those easily.
Moreover, after the completion of any factory's inspection, the Accord engineers suggest a corrective action plan to the garment makers on the spot, so that the unit can continue production, he said.
“The conspiracy theory is complete nonsense. There is absolutely no conspiracy in the inspections.”
Roberts praised Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the government for their cooperation in factory inspections.
“We do not have any restriction in inspection and this is a professional inspection by the engineers. There is no barrier and pressure from any quarter.”
“We have a good relationship with the labour ministry and union leaders,” Roberts said.
The international retailers signed the Accord, a legally binding landmark agreement, because they want a sustainable supply chain of garment products, he said.
The retailers accepted that Bangladesh is a profitable sourcing hub for the garment items with the size of the garment sector increasing significantly over the last three and a half decades.
“You cannot relocate an RMG sector of this size even if you wanted to.” The prospects of garment business in Bangladesh are high because of China, as the latter is unwittingly diverting business here due to rising costs and shortage of garment workers.
Regarding the inspection, he said it will be completed by the end of September this year. But, the Accord will continue to monitor the improvements and strengthening of safety measures for the next four years.
Some garment makers complained about the manpower of the engineering teams as the experts were recruited foreign countries when the inspections began, he said.
In the wake of the criticism, the Accord recruited 25 local engineers for facilitating the inspection process, he said.
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