Has fire safety in RMG sector improved?

Garment labour leaders place flowers at the graves of the Tazreen Fashions victims at Jurain in the capital on November 24, the second anniversary of the fire tragedy. Photo: STAR

It was two years ago this week that fire swept through the Tazreen Fashions factory on the outskirts of Dhaka claiming the lives of more than 110 garment workers.

At the time this was Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident. It laid bare the lack of fire safety in the readymade garment sector and put in motion considerable efforts by local and international stakeholders to ensure such an event could not happen again.

Two years on, has fire safety in the Bangladesh's garment sector improved? The answer is certainly yes, although considerable challenges remain.

In the immediate aftermath of the Tazreen Fashions fire, a National Tripartite Plan of Action was developed by the government, employers and workers organisations with ILO support. The plan identified steps needed to enhance fire safety in the RMG sector, efforts which were subsequently widened following the Rana Plaza collapse just a few short months later to include structural safety.

An immediate priority was to inspect each of the approximately 3,500 garment factories throughout Bangladesh for fire and structural safety. To date, around 60 percent of this work has been carried out by the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology under the National Tripartite Plan of Action. All remaining factories should be inspected by early 2015.

Recognising the vital role of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Department (FSCD), emphasis has been placed on enhancing its capacity to carry out inspections and respond to incidents. The strength of the FSCD has been boosted. The number of fire service staff working as inspectors has increased from 55 to 238 with plans to bring the total to 260 in the near future.

The ILO, with support from the US Department of Labour, is supporting this process by providing comprehensive training. A core of master trainers is being created within FSCD to build the skills of their colleagues nationwide. Fire Service staff can now more effectively inspect factories, develop emergency action plans and carry out evacuation drills to ensure factory occupants evacuate buildings safely when the alarm sounds.

Inspectors from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments as well as safety managers from within RMG factories have attended training sessions, helping them gain a better understanding of the steps and processes to improve fire safety. The international brands and retailers have also played an important role through the Accord and Alliance which have provided fire safety training to workers and employers as have international agencies such as GIZ.

Yet despite the progress made, many challenges lie ahead.

Response times remain a major obstacle to fighting fires. While Fire Service teams can leave their stations within minutes of receiving an emergency call, traffic may result in it taking hours to reach the scene of any fire. In response, the government has recently agreed in principle that nine new fire stations in RMG cluster areas will be built. Efforts are needed from the government and international partners alike to ensure that suitable land is secured and that these facilities become operational as soon as possible.

On the regulatory level, the implementation rules of the Fire Safety Act need further review to ensure compliance with internationally accepted standards. Factories needing to carry out remediation measures require support to do so in an effective manner. To this end, the ILO is working with the government, Accord, Alliance and industry partners to develop a remediation protocol that will help identify contractors qualified to provide factories with correct guidance. Additionally, experts will collaborate on the most effective way to ensure remediation equipment meets acceptable standards.

Support is needed from the highest levels of government to drive forward greater coordination between the regulatory bodies charged with oversight of safety in the RMG sector: the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, the Fire Service and Rajuk.

The regulatory authorities also need to be further empowered to systematically and effectively follow up on inspections while factory owners must understand that there will be consequences if they do not comply with inspection recommendations. In addition, we must all work to try to instill a stronger culture of preventative safety, not only in the garment sector, but the society as a whole.

While all these steps will help shape a safer RMG sector, we must not forget the families and dependants of the Tazreen fire victims. Many victims are yet to receive full compensation. The mechanism used to provide and allocate compensation for Rana Plaza victims could be put to use without delay and ILO welcomes the recent announcement by C&A Foundation, Clean Clothes Campaign and IndustriALL to provide support in this regard.

The fire at Tazreen Fashions left a terrible human toll. We owe it to the victims that from this disaster, a safer RMG sector can emerge, to the benefit of the millions who work within it and Bangladesh as a whole.

The writer is country director, ILO Bangladesh.