The government of Bangladesh has decided to take action against RMG units that have not adhered by the corrective action plan provided by a government-set review committee for ensuring structural, fire and electrical safety at the apparel units. The government is contemplating a legal action against such factories.

If the units fail to implement the recommendations of the government-set committee, they will no longer be allowed to run their businesses. Recently, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a consortium of North American buyers, recently submitted a list of its 11 supplier factories to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) stating that the progresses the factories made in implementing the recommendations by the review committee were not at all satisfactory.

Alliance also added that out of the 11 factories had got time from 412 days to 642 days to implement the review committee’s recommendations like conducting detailed engineering assessment, removal of water tanks and columns from the rooftop and keeping a specified area of the building empty until remediation is completed. The four other factories got time from 96 days to 17 days for demolishing unauthorised cantilevers, propping under the cantilever parts and removal of additional load from the structures.

Four of the 11 factories have been directed to stop running the factories until the review committee’s recommendations are implemented but none of them have suspended production in their factories.

www.bangladeshworkersafety.org