A tale of labour rights and safety

Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez in a report titled “Seven Years after Rana Plaza, Significant Challenges Remain” on June 17, 2021 emphasized labor rights in Bangladesh have “declined sharply in recent years, with union organizers facing pressure on their ability to associate, organize, and demonstrate.” However, the report acknowledged improvement in the structural safety of Garments Factory in Bangladesh. Divided into two Titles, Title-II exclusively addresses labor rights in Bangladesh and Title–I discusses the U. S role in upgrading global labor rights with ILO connivance. Indeed, Bangladesh paid heavily for Rana Plaza disaster; the then United States President Barack Obama suspended the GSP facility on June 27, 2013 with a road map for restoration encapsulated in the Sustainability Compact that Bangladesh acceded in Geneva along with U.S. and EU, and in association with the ILO. Bangladesh fulfilled all the sixteen conditions for restoration and explained on the phase wise improvement in the subsequent TICFA meetings; yet it did not get the nod on GSP restoration. Once the cumulative frustration was echoed by the previous Commerce Minister who wholeheartedly worked for the GSP restoration. Washington is reconsidering restoration of GSP when the facility is open in the near future.

The devastating fire at Hashem Food Factory at Narayanganj in less than one month of the publication upheld the accuracy of the report. This unpleasant industrial accident manifests the poor working conditions and the indifference of the authorities entrusted with the responsibility to ensure safety and protection to the working people. It is reported that the factory also hired a few children not eligible to work in standard labour law. The fire started late Thursday and continued till July 9 evening; unfortunate workers could not escape the fire as the key exit of the working areas was locked. Fire fighters evacuated 52 charred remains of the victims from a single room. With improvement in the working environment of the garments industry, industrial accidents are now frequent the food, packaging and chemical industries.

There were many structural flaws both in the building and in the access road that housed the Hashem Foods Factory. The Union Parishad that authorised the construction of this industrial unit did not have appropriate competency to authorise such a construction. There should be designated areas where flammable objects may be stored and should get the approval from the Fire Service Department and Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments [DIFI]. The factory was not even equipped with primary fire extinguishing instruments to contain the flame. It appears that entities entrusted with the responsibilities of regular maintenance did perfunctory job and the factory was running with lot of problems. This devastating fire unfolds several loopholes both in operational guidelines and structural flaws in the construction of the factory and the sheer negligence of the authorities in regular monitoring.

A factory with multiple production outlets cannot be housed in any building as there are certain critical requirements in the effective maintenance of production channel. Automation is the norm in commercial production that ensure health safety of the consumers. The warehouse facilities is also crucial for bulk production and most importantly safety rules are paramount when inflammables are stored. The blaze at the Hashem Foods factory received worldwide media coverage and thus may tantamount to an understanding that poor working conditions still rampant in the country. The owner of the factory along with a few support staff is under police custody and they are being interrogated on the incident though. DIFI entrusted with the responsibility on routine monitoring could not provide a satisfactory clue on her imperatives to avoid such a disaster. Citing the recent fire at Hashem Foods, Salman F Rahman, Prime Minister’s private sector industry and investment adviser said that the blaze had tarnished the image of the country internationally.

The institutions entrusted with the responsibilities of regulation are lukewarm in dealing with the regular inspection of the registered factories. It is encouraging to note that on July 16, government plan to set up a separate agency to monitor and ensure compliance with fire, building structure and environmental safety at all industrial establishments. A 22-member committee led by Salman F. Rahman would prepare recommendations for compliance based on a scoping study. The committee would submit a report and the agency would then be set up based on the recommendations. It is comforting to note that Bangladesh’s garment sector with the pressure of Accord and Alliance is one of the excellent industrial sector in compliance but overall image would be at stake in the weak compliance in non-RMG sectors with budding prospect of foreign market penetration.

Speaking candidly, it is the time to scrutinize the capability of DIFE to ensure workplace safety. The vision statement of the DIFE is explicit on the better working environment for workers “by ensuring safe and healthy workplaces, to protect the welfare of workers and to encourage cooperation that will contribute to national development.” A visit to DIFE webpage contain inspiring message on LIMA, Labor Inspection Management Application with two user manuals and a friendly template on Labor Inspection Statistics with over seventy category of industries but utterly lacks genuine statistics on inspection. The structure of LIMA underscore the necessity of adequate professional manpower on regular supervision and on timely reporting. There are currently 59,000 registered industrial factories and establishments in the country and only 320 officers to inspect these factories. The urgency is embedded on two counts; the GDP share in the manufacturing sector is now about 30 percent and the bulk of exports has manufacturing base. The 22-member Committee with the expert assistance from BUET may also work out a detailed manpower plan for DIFE to streamline its activities on a scale that could meet the myriad compliance on both domestic and external front in the immediate short run before the creation of a separate agency.

The writer is the Treasurer and a Professor, School of Business and Economics, United International University.