BIDS suggests relocation of factories from shared buildings

Garment factories located in the shared buildings, which are by and large unsafe for the purpose, should relocate to single factory buildings within 3-5 years, a recent study said.
Some 65 percent of the country's 3,426 active garment factories are located in shared buildings, where maintaining the various compliance standards becomes tricky due to the presence of other factories, offices and businesses within the premises, according to the study.
Following the recent spate of accidents in the sector, the ministry of labour and employment commissioned the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the garment sector with respect to industrial relations, workplace safety and compliance.
The study, which has already been handed in to the labour ministry, found that a significant proportion of garment factories abide by workplace safety standards but there are still some critical safety concerns that need attention.
The level of compliance has been found to vary significantly according to factory size and location: the compliance level was less in factories located in Dhaka district and in smaller factories, especially in those with fewer than 500 workers.

Subsequently, the study recommended greater attention to efforts to monitor and follow-up on these factories.
There is confusion among factory owners about the concept of emergency exit: around 81 percent of the factories surveyed did not have exclusive and safe emergency exits that lead directly to outside and considered one of the common staircases in the building as the emergency exit.
Installation of separate and safe emergency exits should be pursued with priority.
Lack of easy and unrestricted access to the staircase was observed in the case of a significant number of surveyed factories—a safety risk which needs to be addressed urgently.
An important safety concern is the location of the warehouse in the ground or first floor of the factory buildings: 81 percent of the respondent factories had them.
Moreover, 33 percent of the factories had electric connection inside the warehouse, which presents scope for fire initiation. Follow-up measures should be taken to remove these safety concerns.
The study also said that factories located in rented premises without 20 feet access road should be asked to relocate their factories within a given time.
While fire drills were reported to be carried out quite regularly in 96 percent of the surveyed factories, only 15.6 percent of the workers were found to have received direct training in firefighting. Measures should be taken to ensure more broad-based training of workers in firefighting.
Inadequate canteen and health facility are concerns that need to be attended urgently as well.
A general lack of awareness was observed amongst both the managers and workers regarding labour rights and relevant compliance issues.
However, both sides agreed that suitable training on rules and regulations regarding workplace safety and labour standards would benefit them in pursuing the matters more effectively.
The paper recommended that the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the labour ministry organise training on compliance issues on a regular basis.
The manpower and institutional capacity of the labour ministry need to be enhanced significantly to ensure effective monitoring and follow-up of the varied compliance issues.
There is also the need for effective coordination among the labour ministry, BGMEA, BKMEA, the foreign buyers and the International Labour Organisation with respect to monitoring and follow-up actions, the study added.
Mikail Shipar, secretary to the labour ministry, said the government will sit with all the stakeholders and BIDS soon to decide on how to go about implementing the recommendations.
Another official of the labour ministry said a garment village spread across 530 acres is being set up in Munshiganj under public-private partnership, where all the risky factories will be relocated.