Al Amin :
The entrepreneurs of the country’s readymade garment (RMG) sector have claimed that they see no pressure on them from the international buyers or organizations centring the fire incident in Rupganj of Narayangonj district.
Although, in a statement on Saturday, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said the Rupganj incident illustrates the importance of taking adequate fire safety measures while constructing buildings in Bangladesh.
“ILO is helping with the development and implementation of an industrial safety framework that would extend the good practices applied over the past eight years in the RMG sector to all other industries and this latest incident illustrates the urgency of that endeavour,” the statement said.
But the leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that no buyers or right bodies have yet to be complained after the incident about safe working place in the RMG sector, around 85 percent export earning source of the country.
They further said, they are abiding by Accord and Alliance strictly in order to make the industry a safe workplace. The relentless pursuit for staying competitive in the global supply chain has helped the industry make great strides in safety and sustainability which has drawn worldwide attention, they said.
The several international organizations and the reputed fashion brands are now acknowledging the industry’s safety measures, they added.
Md Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of the BGMEA, told The New Nation, “There is no scope to create confusion among the buyers centring the fire incidents on juice factory in Rupganj.”
“BGMEA has taken various tough measures to make the industry a safe working place in the last few years, which are now admired by the international buyers massively,” he added. The two major incidents-fire at Tazreen Fashions factory that killed 112 and collapse of Rana Plaza building that killed 1,134 people, were the biggest disaster in the country’s RMG sector.
The two tragedies were in fact major wakeup call and the ways the industry have responded to remediate factories and making the workplace safer is remarkable.
Mohiuddin Rubel, Director of the BGMEA, said, “We have taken strict measures to ensure safety of the workers after the two major incidents in the industry.”
“The fire incidents in Rupganj took place in a separate industry and such incidents are happening randomly in different countries. So, we don’t think it will have adverse impact on RMG sector.”
The European-based Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was signed on May 15 in 2013.
And there is no doubt that Accord and the Alliance have done a wonderful job to ensure safety of the country’s apparel factories and this work has also been instrumental to improving the image of the industry.
However, according to the Solidarity Center, a US-based workers’ rights organization, there were more than 150 fire and other safety episodes connected to the country’s garment industry between 2012 and 2019.
More than 1,300 people died in those incidents and more than 3,800 people were injured, it said.
