Bangladesh Govt. taking safety steps to avoid repeat of 2013 garment factory disaster

A year after the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that claimed the lives of over 1,100, workers, manufacturers and exporters say the scenario has changed with government taking strict safety and clearance measures.

On April 24, 2013, the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, housing garment factories and shops, collapsed.

The disaster has galvanized most of the clothing industry's big names to work together to improve safety standards but many brands have shunned a fund that is trying to raise USD 40 million for the over 2,000 people injured and the families of the dead.

Managing Director of Evince group and former president of Bangladesh garment manufacturer and exporters association, Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), said on Thursday (April 24) after deep introspection it was deduced that the disaster occurred due to lapses by several institutions.

"And when we started digging into it, we discovered we have a lot of weaknesses in our part like the government authority, who have approved the building, whether it has been monitored by the government or not, whether afterwards other organizations like Fire department whether they have been verified properly or not, whether the labour ministry before issuing a license, whether they have been verified, I mean all of them has been party with it," said Chowdhury.

On Wednesday, protesters and family members of victims demanded compensation on the eve of the one year anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza.

President of the United Federation of Garment Workers, Roy Ramesh Chandra, called for compensation for the family members and injured workers in accordance with the International Labour Organisation's convention 121, "based on loss of future earnings and pain and sufferings".

But Chowdhury added that the garment factory owners and manufacturers have already taken welfare measures for the factory workers by offering them more wages and ensuring that safety measures and first aid is in place.

"Now the government has decided that they will follow the Bangladesh national building code. So based on it BUET, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has also given their consent, yes you must follow it, the structure design Association, they say yes you can follow it, Dhaka improvement trust, they also feel that yes, that can be done, so I think that itself is a big achievement to start with," Chowdhury added.

On Tuesday, officials of over 140 newly registered RMG (readymade garment) Sector Trade Unions received Orientation on Freedom of Association Leaders of 141 newly registered trade unions of the RMG factories along with leaders of over 80 trade union federation in Bangladesh.

They received a day-long orientation on issues like collective bargaining and freedom of association.

Bangladesh's readymade garment is an important part of the country's developing economy which received unprecedented pressure from buyers abroad to improve the working conditions in factories.

"We have developed National Tripartite Plan of Action. Under this plan we have started our building inspection through BUET, through alliance through accord. We have already completed around 600 building inspection and we found that only six building has been working in very alarming situation for them the government has asked to close the building," said Secretary, ministry of labour and employment, Mikail Shipar.

Bangladesh's booming garments industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards.

Rock-bottom wages and trade deals have made Bangladesh's garments sector a USD 22 billion industry that accounts for four-fifths of exports, with around 60 percent of garment exports going to Europe and 23 percent to the United States.