DHAKA: A storm is brewing rapidly but not making any noise at all. The windstorm titled “Accord” currently destroying our garment industry insanely but nobody is listening at all! This Accord, allegedly working for a vested group, is already under scrutiny for its overwhelming power over the Government of Bangladesh.
For the last two months, 'conspiracies' to shut down hundred of garment factories is going on. Thousands of garment workers went unemployed due to sudden shutdown. This figure will reach to 500 thousands within 5 months, warned BGMEA president Atikul Islam. What is going to happen to the ill-fated workers and 5 million more dependent on them? Accord has no answer yet.
Government remains mysteriously silent in this issue. The officials just locking the door of the factories overnight after Accord's “Recommendation” (or Pressure?).
Exactly what is doing Accord? Sources said the Accord team did not have either the expertise or the equipment to properly inspect a factory. There are allegations that the recommendations were mostly based on the inspectors’ impulses.
Professor Ahsanul Kabir from BUET is in the Review Committee, he said, The Accord using nothing but sledgehammers to inspect a buildings wall. The team is reporting verbally and based on those verbal 'assumptions' specialist of the review committee made some comments regarding safety of the building.
Rob Ways, executive director (Bangladesh operations) of Accord, claimed that they used ferro scanners and thermal imaging cameras to check structural compliance of factories.
At 22 April a report of an English daily says, “Last month, the team recommended the review committee to temporarily shut down two factories – Fame Knitwear and Softex Cotton – both located in the same building in the capital’s Mirpur. They said the columns and the foundation of the building was not strong enough bear the load. They also claimed to have found discrepancies between the original design and the actual structure.
Md Moshiul Azam Shajal, owner of Fame Knitwear and also a BGMEA director, told the media that: The Accord team told me that the foundation of the building was weak.
He claimed that the Accord team did not conduct the “soil boring test” and therefore could not comment on the foundational weakness of the building.
Mahbubur Rahman, officer of Dhaka development authority Rajuk, also said a soil test was needed for determining the strength of the building’s foundation.
Interestingly, the Accord team has not discussed anything about the matter with the review committee. Prof Kabir said they discussed problems with the building’s structural design, not about foundational weaknesses.
Rajuk or the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakka is the authority in charge of approving structural designs of the buildings erected within the capital. The Labour Ministry review committee does not have any representative from Rajuk.
Mahbubur also said: 'The Accord team cannot just say anything verbally and recommend closing a building. What they are doing is not the proper way. They have to give a certificate mentioning the tests they have conducted and also their results so that we can understand. If any building is unsafe, it should be written in a certificate.' ”
So, it is clear that the inspection is nominal. Shutting down the factories is their sole agenda. But where the benefits lying? On the condition of anonymity an economist observes that, a vested group deliberately wants to destroy the garment sector of Bangladesh. They are trying to pass the market economy of Bangladesh RMG which will be captured gradually by another party. And this is the mission of Accord.
After the so called 'Inspection' of Accord, 5 thousands workers of Softex became unemployed shockingly. According to BGMEA president MD Atikul Islam told, 17 thousand and 500 workers were unemployed only at Dhaka due to shut-down of 16 garments.
A huge fund is needed to transfer a factory, to compensate the workers and to accommodate several safety measures. JICA considering to give 10 billion taka as a loan to the owners. But it is not enough. The alliance of American buyer known as “Alliance” promised to compensate 50% salary of the unemployed workers and it already paid 50% wages of RSI Apparel Limited, but, the Accord literally did nothing. What will happen to those million dollars of Accord collected from the American buyers, is still unclear.
Softex needs almost 100 million taka to compensate 3500 sacked workers. It is not certain who will give this money. Accord is saying, owners are responsible to compensate the unemployed workers. But, the owners said, it is inhumane and not possible for them to pay wages withholding the production. Some ministers of the Government directly opposed Accord in this regard, but Government not yet have taken any initiatives against Accord.
When the Alliance is working considering the situation and abiding law of Bangladesh, Accord is unwilling to accept those. Besides, Alliance recruit some of the Bangladeshi specialists in their team and Accord did not. Meanwhile, it remains blurred that without a sufficiently large investigative team, how the Accord investigated more than 250 factories in such a short period. Again, Accord was recommended to recruit some BUET engineers in their team, but that was not happened. The alliance measuring the factories by their own engineers.
After all, shutting down a factory by a show-off investigation is nothing but a farce and its illegal also. According to the Bangladesh Labor Act 2006, no one can shut down a factory with such silly observation. In accordance with Law, such recommendations or orders can only be delivered by the Chief Inspector or by his assistant or by the Deputy Inspector. In this recent cases of garment factories, no such Inspectors were involved. Accord is recommending (or suppressing) the Government to shut down factories unlawfully depending on their own inspectors.
In fine, we can say that, Accord is shutting down factories by raising the notion of the safety for the workers. But, the question is, does the Accord and their engineers really tensed about the future of 5 hundred thousands workers and their 5 million dependents?
BDST: 1832 HRS, MAY 14, 2014
