Staff Reporter :US Secretary of State John Kerry called for ensuring labour rights and workplace safety in Bangladesh following the Rana Plaza building collapse and Tazreen Fashions factory fire that have claimed more than 1,200 lives.During his first official visit to Bangladesh on Monday, Kerry met with labour and union leaders to discuss about the workers’ right and factory safety issues in Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry.Bangladesh is the second largest garments exporter in the world, after China. Secretary Kerry said the United States supported Bangladesh’s efforts to increase safety inspections of garment factories and close down substandard factory buildings following the disasters.”But these steps are only part of the story. Enhancing worker safety must be paired with improved workers’ rights on the basis of the action plan. This also include allowing workers to form unions and affording them full collective bargaining rights,” Kerry said in a speech after a meeting with senior labour and civil society leaders in Dhaka.On June 27, 2013, President Obama announced his decision to suspend Bangladesh’s trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) in view of insufficient progress by the Government of Bangladesh in ensuring internationally recognized worker rights in Bangladesh’s RMG sector. At the time of the announcement, the Obama Administration provided the Government of Bangladesh with an action plan which, if implemented, could provide a basis for the President to consider the reinstatement of GSP trade benefits for Bangladesh.John Kerry also said that Bangladesh cannot truly meet the aspirations of its people and share prosperity if its workers are not safe and their rights are not ensured.The tragedies at Bangladesh garment factories put pressure on Bangladesh government and European and US clothing brands to improve pay and working conditions at the factories that supply them.Bangladesh exported garments worth $28 billion in the last fiscal. The top US diplomat arrived Dhaka in the morning on a nine-hour visit packed with a series of meetings to discuss bilateral and global issues that both sides expect to take the relations to ‘new heights.’Kerry also held talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during his one-day visit to Bangladesh that focused on efforts to combat militants following a series of deadly attacks. He also paid a visit to a garment factory in the capital’s Mirpur.
