Bangladesh: RMG retailers want 5 more units shut for structural faults

Dhaka, July 7, 2014 (New Age): Groups of European and North American retailers have recently provided the names of five more readymade garment factories to the government-set review committee with the suggestion of immediate evacuation from the factories as their inspection teams have detected structural faults in the units. Of the five factories, three are on the inspection list of Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a group of EU retailers, and two others are on the list of Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group of North American apparel companies, retailers and brands, according to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments. Accord’s teams detected faults in a building of Fakir Apparels Limited at Narayanganj, Oishi Fashions at Gazipur and Ashulia Fashions at Mirpur in Dhaka. Alliance’s teams detected faults in Clifton Apparels in Chittagong and Thats’ It Fashions Ltd at Tejgaon in the capital. Meanwhile, the review committee comprised of representatives from the government, Accord, Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA on Sunday decided that the production at the six factories which are housed in a faulty building at Mirpur in the capital would remain suspended. The owners of the factories except one kept suspended production at the units from late April after the inspection teams of Accord had found serious structural faults at Cherry Ltd and Florence Fashions Ltd and had suggested that review committee should suspend production at the factories housed in the building. Following the suggestion of the Accord’s experts the authorities of the Cherry Ltd and four other factories suspended production at their factories but Florence Fashions Ltd made arrangement to produce products in the building. ‘We have decided that the six factories including Florence Fashions will remain closed due to structural faults at the building,’ DIFE inspector general Syed Ahmed told New Age on Sunday. The names of the six factories are Cherry Ltd, Florence Fashions Ltd, Ultimate Fashions Ltd, Chandana Apparels, Joya Fashions and Maxtrim Industries Ltd. Syed said that the review committee had so far received the names of 20 factories from Accord and Alliance where their inspection teams detected critical structural faults. The committee completed its work on 15 faulty factories and the decisions on the latest five remain pending, he said. The DIFE chief said the review committee had prepared a schedule to finalise decisions on the latest five units and a review committee team would visit Clifton Apparels in Chittagong today. Syed, also the chairperson of the review committee, said that they would visit the three factories which are on the Accord’s list by July 14. After the last year’s Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers, mostly women garment workers, North American apparel companies, retailers and brands formed Alliance and European Union retailers formed Accord to improve safety in Bangladeshi RMG factories. Since February this year the inspection teams of Accord and Alliance inspected more than 1,400 garment factories and a total of 20 factories have so far become closed because they detected serious structural faults in the factory buildings.