Staff Reporter :Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Tuesday said that over 200 readymade garment factories were shut down last year, leaving more than 150,000 workers jobless as fallout of the Rana Plaza collapse.The TIB executive director said this while unveiling a report, titled ‘Steps taken for establishing governance in RMG sector: Review of one-year progress’ at its office in Dhaka.The report prepared based on visits to different garment factories located at Savar, Ashulia and Mirpur.Eight-storeyed Rana Plaza, which housed several garment factories, collapsed on Apr 24, 2013, leaving at least 1,129 people, mostly garment workers, dead and over 2,500 injured.According to the TIB report, small factories were facing the risk of being shut down due to pressure for improvement in working environment and rise in wages and political disturbance. One-fifth of the workers now face the risk of losing jobs, it also said. It said the irregularities and corruption in the garment sector was due to a lack of coordination among the government and other relevant authorities, negligence of duty, and political interference.TIB found that though 95 percent of factories offered salaries as per the structure fixed by the government but the payment was not regular.
