bdnews24.com :
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has welcomed the upgrading of the office of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Establishments to that of a ‘Directorate’.
It views the decision as ‘an important step’ in fulfilling one of Bangladesh’s commitments made in the national tripartite action plan for factory safety in the wake of the country’s worst-ever building collapse in April last year.
More than 1,100 people, mostly garment factory workers, died, prompting the European Union, a major buyer of Bangladesh’s readymade garments, to roll out a safety plan. Upgrading factory inspection was one of the key issues the plan contained.
The government, on Jan 15, issued an order sanctioning 679 new staff positions in the Directorate, including 392 slots for new inspectors.
With this upgrade, the number of labour and factory inspectors will increase to a total of 575 from the current 183.
The ILO Country Office in Dhaka in a media release said they were preparing detailed plans for the development of the capacity of the new Directorate, including training the new inspectors during the next three years.
A delegation of eight senior ILO officials from Geneva, Bangkok and New Delhi, along with a senior representative from the ILO International Training Centre (ITC) in Turin, Italy, is currently in Dhaka.
They will meet the newly appointed Inspector General of Factories and Establishments along with a team of incumbent and new inspectors to conduct a detailed assessment of the training and capacity building for the next three years.
The delegation will also call on the Labour Minister and the Labour Secretary to discuss the ILO plans, apart from meeting all stakeholders, it said in a media release.
“The upgrading of the inspection services is a significant milestone in our joint efforts to strengthen the capacity government, employers and workers organizations in addressing the working conditions, safety and workers’ rights issues in Bangladesh”, said ILO country director Srinivas B Reddy was quoted as saying in the media release.
