Bangladesh: factories faced with expensive fire safety requirements
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Fashion
Britain to launch three new safety projects
Britain is going to launch three new projects to help improve working conditions and safety standards in Bangladesh’s garment industry, its international development minister says. Alan Duncan announced the new projects in Dhaka on Wednesday ahead of the first year anniversary of the worst-ever building collapse on Apr 24. Duncan said those would be “a million pound projects”.
After the incidents last year, inspectors have found that most of the Bangladesh garment factories lack adequate fire safety equipments. Fire incidents are quite common in Bangladeshi factories and a large number of workers are being killed every year.
As pressure mounted locally and globally in the recent months fire department inspectors have swooped on the apparel factories and ordered owners to install various fire safety equipments like fire doors, busbar tracking systems, automatic fire sprinkler systems and fire extinguishers.
However, factory owners find such a big investments a ‘sudden burden’ for them and think that many factories will not be able to comply with these requirements all at once. They say those who are putting pressure on factory owners to be fully equipped for fire safety should share the cost so that the burden of factory owners is reduced. Buyers also have a responsibility in their eyes and should participate in the costs of buying fire safety equipment.
Vice president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem said each factory will have to make a investments of at least Tk 10 million (83.000 pounds) to meet fire safety requirements. He said some big factories may need to spend Tk 50 million (415.000 pounds) to install equipment meeting with the buyers requirements.
“It is really impossible for a majority of garment factory owners to spend such amounts. Especially now that work orders are declining and profit is squeezed. I think we need more time to invest in fire safety side,” Hatem said. He added making Bangladeshi factories, which mainly produces low end basic goods and make marginal profit, compliant to the global standards will take time. “It's impossible to make the entire Bangladeshi textile industry meet with global standards at the same time.” He thinks it is unwise to pressure factory owners to be fully equipped for fire safety at short notice. "They should be given enough time to buy the needed equipment in phases," Hatem added.
Factories that fail to meet safety requirements will face closure
Government officials have said factories that fail to meet workplace safety requirements will face closure. None will be spared for negligence in ensuring workplace safety. The Baglades government feels pressured as recent incidents have tarnished the country’s image and led to suspension of generalized system of preferences (GSP) facility for Bangladeshi goods to the United Sates market. The European Union has threatened to cut GSP facility for Bangladeshi goods as well unless workplace safety and labour welfare is ensured.
The apparel industry accounts for almost 80 per cent of foreign currency income for the impoverished country. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladesh people, mainly women, are directly or indirectly involved in apparel industry which is considered as lifeline for the country's economy. Bangladesh houses over five thousand garment factories, some 3,600 of which are now in operation. Many factories already closed in the recent years failing to get adequate work order or competing with others.
After the two deadly incidents last year, both the US and the EU have forwarded two sets of Action Plans to Bangladesh to ensure workplace safety and labour welfare in textile factories. Appointing an adequate number of factory inspectors, installation of fire safety equipments in all factories, and allowing trade union regulations in the apparel sector are among the many conditions of Action Plan.
Alliance, a body of retailers of European buyers, and Accord, another platform of North American retailers are looking after fire and building safety activities in Bangladesh alongside the government’s initiative.
Progress has been made. Already the government has appointed a good number of factory inspectors, recruitment of many more are also in pipeline. Besides, Bangladesh labour law has been amended targeting workers’ welfare, and trade unionism has been allowed in the garment factories. The strength of factory buildings is under scrutiny of public-private inspection teams. Factories housed in buildings with fragile structure were asked to either shut down or move to other properties.
Vice President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Shahidullah Azim said meeting the fire safety requirement is a big burden for the factory owners as it involves huge investments. “Both buyers and the pressure groups should share the cost of remediation as they also have sharedresponsibility,” said Azim. He said most of the factories will not be able to comply with the requirements unless they get soft loans from banks. Besides, letting factory owners duty-free import of safety equipments may also help them to reduce burden.
Along with co-funding from Canada and the Netherlands, the UK government is providing 4.8 million pounds for an International Labour Organisation programme, which will support inspections at around 1500 factories in Bangladesh, provide safety awareness training, and help victims recover from these disasters and launch the Better Work programme. “So far 200 factories have been inspected for structural safety and 120 for fire and electrical safety, and we are supporting the development of a publicly accessible database to record the results of inspections,” Alan Duncan said.
Syful Islam, Dhaka