RCC factories remediation sees slow progress

The Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) has made little progress in fixing safety issues in the ready-made garment factories which were inspected under the National Initiative backed by the International Labour Organization.

A total of 793 out of 1,549 factories are now operational and the units have made an average of 48% progress in remediation as of July this year, according to the Labour Inspection Report 2020-21.

Of those, 648 factories are in Dhaka district, 299 in Narayanganj, 372 in Gazipur, 193 in Chattogram district and 37 in other districts.

A total of 630 factories were closed, 100 relocated and 14 factories were moved to the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety lists from the National Initiative list.

The remaining 12 are under the Export Processing Zone. 

The findings were given in a recent report by The Department of Factory and Establishment Inspection (DIFE).

Talking to The Business Standard, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) vice-president Shahidullah Azim said that remediation was a continuous process, but buyers should follow a common standard.

He also mentioned that due to the pandemic, inspection and remediation activities had slowed. 

The RCC was set up in 2017 to monitor the implementation of the Corrective Action Plans (CAPS), including those with Detailed Engineering Assessment (DEA) requirements, by the National Initiative, with a focus on factories not covered under the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety or the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.

The report said that 535 factories had completed less than 50% of the remediation works, 95 factories had shown 50-70% progression and 94 had achieved more than 70-80% progress.

It added that 120 factories had achieved more than 90% progress during the remediation.

Additionally, under the Escalation Protocol, a list of 79 factories were sent closure letters and a request letter was sent to the BGMEA/BKMEA to permanently revoke the Utilization Declaration (UD) of some.

The DIFE report mentioned that the RCC factories were facing some challenges over remediation --- most under the National Initiative had less capacity, while the majority of these factories were situated in rented buildings and working through sub-contracts.

The RCC also faced a lack of cooperation from building owners and in some cases more than one type of factory or establishment was situated in the same building.

The factory owners are reluctant towards remediation works due to lack of export opportunity/brand buyers and lack of awareness regarding workplace safety, the report said.

The National Initiative formed to inspect safety issues, after the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly workers in the readymade garment (RMG) industry, is funded by the governments of Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.