22.8pc RMG factories not monitored
Almost a quarter of the garment factories in Bangladesh are still not under any inspection mechanism but they are shipping products abroad to countries other than the US and the EU, the Centre for Policy Dialogue said.
Of the 3,752 garment factories, companies, 856 are not under the purview of either the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), Nirapon or the Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC), the think-tank said at an event held at its office yesterday.
Even those factories that are inspected by the authorities are not monitored properly, so accidents and casualties prevail. On top of that, the authorities' enthusiasm for inspections is waning, the think-tank said.
Though the country has not seen any recurrence of Rana Plaza-like incidents between 2013 and 2023, the risk of workplace injuries remains, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD, at the event on workplace safety in the garment industry.
"The number of deaths, incidents and accidents are not zero yet. Besides, the number of accidents has risen recently."
For instance, the number of fire incidents in export-oriented factories rose from 177 in 2000 to 241 in 2022. In 2021, the number of workplace accident deaths was 13 in 2021, according to the data of Safety and Rights, a non-governmental organisation.
The RSC, which conducts regular safety inspections at apparel units after the ACCORD left the country, covers 1,887 factories, while Nirapon inspects about 350 factories.
The RCC, a specialised temporary unit of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), is responsible for inspecting 659 factories. DIFE has shifted the responsibility of RCC to the Industrial Safety Unit.
This means one-fourth of the export-oriented factories are still out of any monitoring initiatives, according to Moazzem.
"This is not a good sign," he said.
The uninspected factories are exporting goods mainly through subcontracting. So, the factories should be brought under a safety mechanism to effectively address their compliance and safety concerns.
The factories are sending products to non-traditional markets like Brazil, Russia etc.
Given that increasing shipments to the non-traditional market, the safety activities should not only be focused on factories that are exporting to the US or the EU, Moazzem added.
Abdul Haque, managing director of RSC, acknowledged the CPD's observation about the lack of factory inspection reports last year. But it is now publishing the report every month instead of every quarter.
"No one can say that accidents will not happen in a factory ever. But we check whether all safety measures are in place," he added.
Mina Masud Uzzaman, additional inspector general of DIFE, declined to comment on the issue without going through the CPD's analysis.
The DIFE's factory inspections declined 43 percent last fiscal year to 3,560 garment units, said Tamim Ahmed, senior research associate of CPD.
After the Rana Plaza accident, DIFE no longer suffers from a shortage of human and technical resources.
"It is thus unclear what caused the fall in the number of inspections, and more so, now that it has the Labour Inspection Management Application (LIMA)."
LIMA allows factory inspections without physically visiting the site.
On the other hand, DIFE's inspection quality is not up to the mark, which is a matter of concern, Ahmed said.
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