RMG to face action unless standards improve
European trade union warns
Staff Correspondent
Leaders of a Europe-based workers federation yesterday reiterated their demand for improving working condition and salary packages for labours and workers at garment factories, and warned Bangladesh export will face great difficulties if these issues are not addressed immediately."You do not have customers if you don't have right products that are manufactured respecting local laws and international requirements," Neil Kearney, general secretary of Belgium-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) told reporters after a meeting with Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury. Representatives of European buyers accompanied Kearney at the meeting with the commerce minister in the chair. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Annisul Huq and its leader Fazlul Huq were present. Kearney at the meeting said people were killed in the Savar Spectrum tragedy on April 11 for ignoring these issues. However, the BGMEA president asked Kearney to withdraw his words, terming the Spectrum tragedy an accident, meeting sources said. Kearney also talked about compensation package for the victims of Spectrum tragedy, saying it was not adequate to compensate human lives. "You can't have a good dinner at $300 at Sheraton Hotel. What you need to do is to calculate what is your worth," he told reporters. Two million people are directly employed in readymade garment (RMG) sector, while 25 million people are getting benefits of garment exports, the federation leader said terming it the backbone of Bangladesh economy. Addressing the issues like complying local laws and establishing international labour standard are necessary for maintaining stability of Bangladesh economy, Kearney observed. The federation leaders at another meeting two months ago stressed the need for paying double in case of working extra time for women workers and giving them maternity leave with full salary so that exporters may continue selling their products to the EU. "We are already going through a tough time as woven export is on the slide in the last few months. It's a pressure for us to address these issues right at this moment," Annisul said. "We will ensure that no new factory is built violating the standard. We'll start a survey to identify the overall situation of the factory buildings," Altaf told the reporters.
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