Assessment of Safety Measures in RMG Sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh's Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector has experienced rapid growth over the past 20 years, reaching a point where it is now the largest export earner in the country and employs over 3.5 million workers. In the region of four million workers, about 55-60% of whom are women, the Bangladesh RMG industry runs around 3,600 active factories. At present, it is also the world's second largest exporter of ready-made garments. However, Fast and unregulated growth creates serious problem. There are significant problems with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), working conditions, wage rates, union rights, and lack of effective human resource management in many factories. However, shortcomings in national labor policy, industrial relations and mechanisms of public dialog intensify and prolong non-compliance with national laws and regulations. Such challenges and vulnerabilities are at the core of the RMG sector's recent series of industrial tragedies. Two factory fires and a collapse of a building that housed five RMG factories took over 1,200 people's lives and wounded many more. This study highlights the work on the safety systems that being done in the RMG factories and their effect on the lives of the worker. The whole process contains inspections, design, installation and checks of systems that aid building, fire and electrical safety standards of the factories. This study put lights on all the initiatives both national and international that has been taken in response of recent tragedies in the RMG sector and analyses their effect on the factories. This study tires to identify the management practice that is being followed by factory, inspection bodies and others to ensure these systems are working effectively and serving the life safety requirements. Findings of this study show that good progress has been achieved on remediation of fire, electrical and building safety issues identified in the inspections made by international and national initiatives. Factories has done lot of work in the overall infrastructure of the factory to develop health and safety condition which in turn has affected workers understanding of the health and safety concerns of their factory in a positive way.