The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), German international cooperation enterprise GIZ, and Particip GmbH (Particip) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen the capacity – participation, safety, anti-harassment – of factory committees of BGMEA member factories.

The MoU aims to enable these committees to build and maintain a healthy relationship among both workers and management representatives of each committee.

Under the agreement, the master trainers of the BGMEA who were provided with a five-day training of trainers training will train several factory committee members in the participating member factories to develop their capacities and function more effectively.

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BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, Dr Michael Klode, GIZ project coordinator STILE, and Md Manjur Morshed, senior adviser at Particip GmbH, inked the agreement Thursday.

Faruque said: "It is hoped that this initiative will strengthen the capacity of workers and management representatives to make different committees more functional."

"The apparel industry of Bangladesh has made unprecedented efforts and progress in workplace safety, particularly in fire, electrical and structural integrity over the past eight years."

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"Over these years massive training and awareness building initiatives were undertaken to create the culture of safety, which covered fire safety drills and other occupational safety and health issues, as well as social dialogue and industrial relations," the BGMEA president added.

Michael Klode said: "We are happy to work with BGMEA to address a range of factory committees to ensure better communication about social and environmental standards, also gender issues that lead to more efficiency and higher productivity."

BGMEA Directors Faisal Samad and Rajiv Chowdhury, former BGMEA director ANM Saifuddin, and GIZ Senior Adviser Sarwat Ahmad were also present at the MoU signing ceremony in the city.

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