The revision of the Bangladesh Labour Act (2006) was set as the main priority to improve the legislative environment of the garment sector. The process of reviewing the act started in May 2013 and the revised act was adopted by the parliament by July 2014.
।। Muhammad Estiak Hussain ।।
The Rana Plaza tragedy, which claimed the lives of 1136 Bangladeshi garment workers on April 24, 2013, shocked the world. And a few months later in the same year, the fatal fire at Tanzeen Fashion which took 112 lives of garment workers indicated that the Bangladesh Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector had reached a crucial situation. But, since then, a massive effort has taken place to create a better working condition in the RMG industries.
Enhanced local and international collaboration and commitment
Following the Rana Plaza incident, local as well as many international parties came forward to raise the overall quality of Bangladesh’s RMG industry. As a result, the International Labour Organization (ILO) with the help of Canada, Netherlands and the United Kingdom launched its “Improving Working Conditions in the Ready-Made Sector Programme”. This programme has collaborated with the government, employees, and employers’ associations to improve working conditions and support labor inspectorate reform. It also sought to promote an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) culture, gave support to Rana Plaza victims, and created the “Better Work Bangladesh” campaign. The “Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety,” which brought together over 200 garment firms, global and local trade unions, NGOs, and workers’ rights groups in a legally-binding agreement, was another key initiative. The 5+3 group also came to develop the garment sector in Bangladesh. This group includes the ambassadors of five nations (the EU, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and one other EU member), as well as the secretaries of trade, labour, and foreign affairs. This group received technical assistance from the ILO. A sustainability agreement was developed to encourage the development of the RMG sector and the Knitwear industry of Bangladesh by the European Union, Governments of Bangladesh and US with the support from ILO. There was also national level integration in developing the safety training for workers by “Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporter Association” (BGMEA) and “Fire Service and Civil Defense Department” (FSCD). German development agency GIZ also worked on training for the labor inspectorate in Bangladesh. Denmark also launched a program for enhancing OSH.
Creation of a better legislative environment
The revision of the Bangladesh Labour Act (2006) was set as the main priority to improve the legislative environment of the garment sector. The process of reviewing the act started in May 2013 and the revised act was adopted by the parliament by July 2014. Major reforms included such as the streamlining of the registration process for trade unions as well as the requirement to establish safety committees in every factory with more than 50 workers, including the workplace members. We can see a growth of trade unions from 2012 to 2015. According to a report from ILO, there were 132 trade unions at the end of 2012 where the total number of trade unions counted in 2015 was 437.
Toward safer RMG factories
The initial priority following the collapse of the Rana Plaza was to inspect all export-oriented RMG firms in Bangladesh for structural, electrical, and fire safety. The inspection of RMG factories was carried out by three initiatives. “The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety” and “The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety” inspected the majority of the factories. The remaining factories were inspected by a government effort supported by the ILO with funding from Canada, UK and Netherlands. It helped to develop a common reporting template to ensure consistency between inspection reports produced by different groups, enhancing collaboration between regulators. The “Remediation Coordination Cell” was established to expedite the remediation of national initiative factories. ILO and other contributors also worked with “Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense” (FSCD) and brought some changes to improve safety in the RMG sector of Bangladesh such as mobile training units, online fire licensing system and motorcycles for inspectors.
Strengthening labour inspectorate
It was evident that the labour inspectorate system in Bangladesh’s RMG sector needed to be completely overhauled if it was to be effective. As a result, Bangladesh’s government took a number of efforts to rebuild the “Department of the Inspection of Factories and Establishments” (DIFE). The inspection system was upgraded to a department in January 2014. The reform programme of DIEF brought some other changes in the inspectorate system of RMG sector. Such as Inspection Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs), information and knowledge management systems enhance data handling and transparency, Labour Inspection Management App (LIMA) to gather information via tablet computers and many others.
“Better Work Bangladesh”
“Better Work Bangladesh” (BWB) is an innovative partnership between the ILO and the “International Finance Corporation” (IFC). BWB worked to improve the condition of workers by promoting relations between managers and workers of the factories and by ensuring a safer workplace. It also promotes a more gender inclusive working place for garment workers. It also actively engaged with the training campaign for supervisory skills, sexual harassment prevention, workplace cooperation and roles and responsibilities of participation committees.
Bangladesh’s RMG sector is one of the major sources of foreign earnings without any doubt. The contribution of the RMG sector in overall GDP is immense and it is even better after massive efforts of the Bangladesh government with the help of other entities to improve the overall working condition and meet the international standard of workers safety issues. Bangladesh’s RMG export value was estimated to be at 27.95 billion dollars in 2020 which was definitely lower than the previous year because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which severely hampers the world economy due to worldwide closure of borders, nationwide lockdown and other preventive measures to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. The world economy is slowly recovering from the backdrop of the Covid-19 and Bangladesh too is trying to recover from such setback by reopening its RMG sector. But everyone should bear in mind that an upward scale of growth and development can only be maintained by active collaboration among the Bangladesh government, garment owners and workers.
The writer is a student, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka
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