Bangladesh’s RMG sector needs to improve its labour and working environment in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) to better handle the post-graduation challenges, speakers said at a virtual dialogue on Saturday.
Over the past decade, they said, the export-oriented RMG sector has made significant progress in strengthening workplace safety.
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Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in partnership with the Christian Aid in Bangladesh organised the virtual dialogue titled “Building the RMG Sector in Adherence with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs).”
In continuation of this journey, the speakers said, the sector needs to focus on human and labour rights issues taking into account the post-LDC graduation requirements.
The UNGPs have provided a guideline for the industries on how to improve the labour rights practices in the workplace.
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Such a guideline will be highly beneficial for the RMG enterprises to better structure social compliances in adherence to international standards, they said, adding that the government agencies will get a better understanding about how to facilitate factories in strengthening their labour practices.
CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun delivered the introductory remarks and Country Director and Christian Aid Bangladesh Pankaj Kumar delivered the welcome remarks at the session.
They shared that since the issues are new in the context of Bangladesh, an exploratory study has been conducted on the ‘State of the UNGPs in the RMG Sector of Bangladesh’.
Based on a nationally representative sample survey in the RMG enterprises, the study has identified areas of strengths and weaknesses in UNGP practices and thereby put forward a set of suggestions.
Mentioning that the RMG sector is one of the key sources of foreign exchange earnings, Dr Fahmida suggested that even though the sector has shown impressive growth during the post-Rana Plaza period, there are some social compliance issues that still require a focus.
In his keynote paper, CPD Research Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said the study analysed the level of maturity on UNGPs of RMG enterprises on eight key indicators such as policy commitment; governance and embedding; prioritisation of risks and identification of the salient human rights issues; stakeholder engagement; assessing human rights risks; integration and mitigation measures; tracking; and remedy and grievance mechanisms.
The study pointed out that Bangladesh’s overall progress in terms of UNGPs is still below the elementary level—mainly at a “negligible” level.
He said basic facilities for workers are yet to be available across the board in all factories and disparity in human and labour standards in terms of size, membership and location of factories is well-noticed.
The level of overall improvement is more evident in the case of the large- and medium-sized factories compared to the small-sized ones.
Also, the study highlighted interesting facts which showed that the factories from Dhaka and Gazipur district have better performance in most human rights aspects than factories from Chattogram and Narayanganj.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan put some vital issues on the table, including—adhering to the SDGs, developing a unified code of conduct to avoid the audit fatigue, conducting a comprehensive research in concentration with all the local and global standards, and bringing a positive change through apparel diplomacy and thorough research.
BGMEA Director Vidiya Amrit Khan said organisations under the BGMEA are much more transparent regarding audit and compliance related information. Still, she remarked, individual companies might have different strategies, and opening/publishing web page-based data cannot be imposed. She commented that the wage rate corresponds with the efficiency of the labour force.
Sharmin Sultana Moushumi, Advocate, Bangladesh High Court, talked about the issue of safety inspection and re-inspection. “Necessary amendments to labour laws and rules need to be considered as well as better functioning of labour courts and other barriers in the courts need to be reduced to complete the cases quickly.”
“It’s a high time that we should address our problems and challenges with transparency,” commented another distinguished discussant Haroon Ar Rashid, Director, BGMEA.
Md Mojibul Haque, MP, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Labour and Employment, Bangladesh Parliament was present as a special Guest.
Shedding light on the need for reducing the gap between the owners and the workers, he said that more seminars and symposiums should be organised in order to address the gap and increase awareness from both ends.
First Vice-President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem highlighted two important issues—first, childcare facilities, and second, corporate social responsibility (CSR) facilities.
He also called for a collective and coordinated effort to reduce various gaps.