‘Bangladesh govt, industry need to ensure RMG workers’ rights’

The Bangladesh government and the country’s garment industry need to ensure workers’ rights to association, organise, bargain as well as raise their voices on safety issues, said Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, US ambassador.

However, Bernicat found the building and fire safety in the readymade garment industry of the nation to be satisfactory.

The RMG industry and the government should also ensure that the rights of the workers are fully protected, said Bernicat during a discussion on ‘The State of Fire Safety in Bangladesh’ that was organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Dhaka.

ILO is working towards improving fire and general building safety in Bangladesh, an initiative funded by the US department of labour.

Close to 4,000 factories have already been tested for electrical and fire safety, Bangladeshi media reports said quoting Bernicat.

General secretary of IndustriAll Bangladesh Council Kutubuddin Ahmed is of the opinion that trade unions can be of help for identifying workers’ issues and help them voice their concerns.

Considerable improvements have been witnessed in fire safety since 2013 and the first priority should be workers’ safety at workplace, said Srinivas Reddy, Bangladesh country director, ILO.

He added that the government of the country and the garment industry can work independently to ensure the workers’ safety in factories.