Govt, BGMEA seek to be part of factory inspection team

The government and garment exporters have expressed disappointment as IndustriALL -- a global trade union -- has excluded them from a core committee that will inspect Bangladeshi factories under an accord signed by 85 global retailers and brands.
The Bangladesh sides were barred from the panel as IndustriALL fears they could influence the inspection, an official of the trade union said.
Also, the 85 retailers and brands will pay $12.5 million each in the next five years for the inspection and as compensation to workers, but the Bangladesh government and the garment manufacturers will have no such contribution, the official said.

Now the government and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association seek membership of the steering committee of the building and fire safety accord. However, IndustriALL, the initiator of the agreement, wants to keep them in the advisory council.
In the six-member steering committee, Monica Campbell from IndustriALL, John Hoffman from UNI Global Union, and Roy Ramesh Chandra, general secretary of IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, have been named under the unions category.
The rest three representatives were selected from the international brands and retailers -- Inditex, PVH and C&A, Roy Ramesh Chandra said.
The IndustriALL Global Union initiated the accord to inspect 800 factories after the deadliest Rana Plaza building collapse in Savar that claimed 1,132 lives in April.
The other members of the advisory council of the factory inspection team will be representatives from the civil society and trade union leaders, Chandra said. The BGMEA and the government will remain in the focal point in the implementation process of the accord, he added.
But, Chandra could not exactly say when the factory inspection will begin. The government and the garment makers' platform endorsed the legally binding accord in Geneva in presence of the representatives of the International Labour Organisation on July 8.
BGMEA President Atiqul Islam said they have already requested the IndustriALL to include them in the steering committee. “We will talk to them (IndustriALL) again,” Islam said.
North American Alliance, a platform of 20 US-based retailers and brands for worker safety that will separately inspect 1,200 factories, has already made Islam a member of their agreement implementing committee.