A Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) has been launched in Bangladesh recently, which according to the UN Labour Agency will take the safety of the country’s readymade garment industry and is reckoned as “a step forward”.
Launched in Dhaka, the RCC is supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO) with funding from Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It will focus on managing the remediation process for the garment factories under the Bangladesh Government’s National Initiative.
The new unit will be staffed and supported by the secondary members of the regulatory bodies, including the Department of Inspections for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), Fire Service and Civil Defense, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), Chief Electrical Inspector and the Public Works Department. They will further be supported by the private sector engineers, hired to provide technical expertise for the remediation follow-up.
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Speaking at the launch of RCC, Md. Mujibul Haque, Minister of State for Labour and Employment said, the remediation of all garment factories must be completed “as quickly as possible, and the Remediation Coordination Cell will make a major contribution towards this goal”. The Government is fully committed in ensuring the safety of the garment industry and all who work in it, the Minister added.
Initially, the RCC will work with 1,293 garment factories. According to the ILO this number will, however, change as new factories are established and enter the National Initiative or as factories exit the two other inspection initiatives overseeing the remediation process currently, namely the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
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Secretary for Labour and Employment Mikail Shipar, Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Benoît-Pierre Laramée, Netherlands Ambassador Leoni Margaretha Cuelenaere, and ILO Country Director for Bangladesh Srinivas Reddy among others were also present at the launch.
