Dhaka must ensure fire safety, say firms
DHAKA, Dec 1, (Agencies): International garment firms have demanded fast action to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi textile workers, a week after a plant fire killed more than 100 people, a senior industry official in the country said on Saturday.
Mohammad Shafiul Islam, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said a 19-member buyers’ forum was blunt in suggesting it would “lose confidence” in the country’s industry unless change came fast.
Rights groups have called on big-brand firms to sign up for a fire safety programme.
Islam quoted company officials at the meeting on Friday as saying that while some factories in Bangladesh observed safety regulations, “many of them do not comply with these”.
Action
“Now we want to see proper action towards implementation of compliance issues, instead of commitments,” he quoted Roger Hubert, VicePresident of Hong Kongbased Li & Fung Ltd , as telling the meeting.
Hubert, he said, pledged financial support for the families of those who died in the fire. Representatives of Li & Fung and other companies present were unavailable for comment.
Last week’s fire at Tazreen Fashions, Bangladesh’s worst-ever industrial blaze, was blamed by authorities on saboteurs. Police say narrow exits trapped workers inside the nine-storey building, killing 111 people and injuring more than 150.
Three employees have been arrested and police say they are being investigated for suspected negligence.
Several hundred workers demonstrated outside the gutted plant on Saturday demanding what they said was three months in wage arrears. Protesters briefly blocked a highway and other plants in the area stopped work, fearing vandalism.
A senior official from the BGMEA said the association had agreed to pay one month in back wages on behalf of the plant and was trying to settle all outstanding issues.
The fire has drawn attention to global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh where wages are low — as little as the equivalent of $37 for some workers.
Meeting
The meeting was attended by representatives of major clothing companies, including H&M, TSS, SEARS, TCHIBO, Global Merchants, GAP Inc, Nike Inc, LEVIS, Kappahl, Carrefour and Primark. No representative of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was present.
Islam said he told the companies his association would form a task force next week to uphold safety regulations at individual plants.
“We have described the post-fire situation as a crisis in the industry and requested all stakeholders to come forward with a collaborative approach to address the crisis,” Islam said.
The association, he said, had been trying to communicate with Walmart. The US retail giant this week said one of its suppliers subcontracted work to the factory without authorisation and would no longer be used.
Other retailers, like Gap and Nike, denied any relationship with the workshop.
Bangladesh’s government said Saturday it will give 200,000 takas ($2,500) to the families of those who died in a garment factory fire last week and 50,000 takas ($625) to those who were injured.
The government’s offer of compensation, announced to The Associated Press by Mahbubul Hoque Shakil, an aide to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was separate from the garment industry’s promise to pay the families of the victims a monthly salary for at least 10 years.
The fire a week ago killed 112 people and put renewed focus on the lack of proper safety precautions at some of the nation’s 4,000 garment factories. The $20 billion industry accounts for 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports.
More than 1,000 workers at the Tazreen factory in a Dhaka suburb protested outside the burned-out facility on Saturday demanding compensation for their lost wages. The government announced they would be paid for November, but some angry workers demanded they be given four months’ salary.
Extra police were deployed to the area to maintain calm, said Kader Dewan, an assistant commissioner of police.
Meanwhile, clothes manufacturers in Bangladesh on Friday pledged to “act now” to improve safety conditions after 110 workers were killed in a fire, as the industry tried to reassure Western buyers.
Since the blaze late Saturday the fire department has launched a surprise inspection blitz of hundreds of factories, while protesters have taken to the streets to demand better safety measures.
Highlighted
There have been accusations managers at the Tazreen Fashion factory, 30 kmDs (20 miles) north of the capital Dhaka, told employees to stay at their work stations when the fire broke out, and firefighters have highlighted the inadequacy of escape routes.
“Its a crisis for the industry and we need to act now to ensure safety for our workers,” said Shafiul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporter Association (BGMEA).
“We want to take lessons from this tragic incident and we want to restart from here.
The BGMEA would form an expert panel to improve and monitor factory safety, he said, and companies that did not comply would face “stern actions”.
Islam made the pledge as around 50 Western buyers, including GAP, H&M and Levi’s, gathered to express their concerns during a meeting at the BGMEA head office in Dhaka.
Bangladesh is a global centre for clothes manufacturing due to cheap labour, but work conditions are often basic and safety standards low.
The country has recently emerged as the world’s second-largest clothes exporter with overseas garment sales topping $19 billion last year, or 80 percent of national exports.
The sector is the mainstay of the poverty-stricken country’s economy, employing 40 percent of its industrial workforce.