Inspection authority fails to eliminate safety hazards in garment factories

The inspection authority concerned in Bangladesh has failed to eliminate the high-risk safety hazards in the garment factories it inspected three to five years back, according to a latest research report.

The inspection agency is not ready to take over the responsibility of the ongoing safety activities in the factories listed with the Accord, a platform of Western buyers, claimed the report launched on Monday.

Four global labour rights groups -- Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labour Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium -- conducted the research based on the data on factory safety available with the government.

These four rights groups are also signatories to the Accord.

The Accord, the platform of EU-based global apparel brands, retailers and trade unions, was formed after the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1100 garment workers to improve workplace safety in the country's readymade garment industry for five years that ended in May last year.

Pressure is mounting on the government to allow the platform for three more years in Bangladesh, as its extended tenure ended in November 2018. The issue now remained under judicial consideration.

The government's justification for trying to end the Accord's work depends entirely on its claim that the government is ready to assume responsibility for the 1,688 factories under the Accord's purview, but research shows a shocking level of unreadiness, the report said.

"Each of the 745 factories under the government's inspection programme has yet to eliminate high-risk safety hazards, all of which were identified between three and five years ago," it said.

The high-risk hazards included lockable exit ways which, in the event of a fire, could leave workers trapped inside.

Citing DIFE's (Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments) statistics, the report said that as of October 2018, some 220 factories had remediated more than 50 per cent of the non-compliance items identified in corrective action plans (CAPs) and only 198 factories had submitted Detailed Engineering Assessments, of which 156 had been checked by the task force of the inspection authority.

The remediation rate of non-compliance items in all covered CAPs is 36 per cent for structural safety, 37 per cent for electrical safety and 31 per cent for fire safety, it said.

The government-run databases intended to provide information on the remediation of garment factories were inconsistent and fail to provide information on follow-up inspections, the report said.

The Accord had identified 114 critically unsafe factories, which it subsequently terminated from its inspection programme, but half of these facilities remained open under the government's inspection programme, it added.

"There is no indication in the government's own records that any safety improvements have been made to these factories," the research report said.

The labour rights groups also said that the government's complaint mechanism did not guarantee workers' anonymity when they file complaints, as it received only 18 complaints since 2013 while some 1,152 complaints were lodged with the Accord during the same period.

Citing recent fire incidents in Dhaka, the report suggested: "Rather than putting energy into attempts to gain control over the 1,688 Accord-covered factories, the DIFE should focus on the nearly 30,000 industrial facilities that need its attention much more urgently."

The Accord's planned work through 2021 could free up direly needed government capacity to improve the safety situation in chemical factories, non-Accord garment factories, and other sectors, it noted.

It is critical that the government of Bangladesh works with the Accord signatories to create a transition plan that puts worker safety first, with handover of factories being conditional on readiness, said the report.

This would provide real solutions by incorporating the vital elements of the Accord's model towards improving workplace safety, not just its inspections, but also the complaint mechanism and worker trainings, it noted.

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