Established on March 15, 2015 by the Bangladesh Government to address readymade garment (RMG) workers’ issues, keeping in mind the action plan provided by the USA to regain the GSP facility, the ‘hotline facility’ has reportedly failed to evoke much response from the workers. It has been said that authorities’ failure to create awareness about the initiative among workers, coupled with alleged damp squib to respond timely to complaints made through the channel, resulted in making this initiative not so successful.
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According to the data provided by the Department of Inspection for the Factories and Establishments (DIFE), since the inauguration of the service till May 31 this year, a total of 1,105 complaints have been recorded, of which 387 were deemed irrelevant, which further underlined that out of 718 relevant complaints only 176 have been settled in the last one year and two months. This has led labour rights groups alleging that the hotline was ‘only on papers’ and has not been ‘effective at all as workers do not get remedy’ after lodging complaints through the hotline.
“It is true the response of the workers is very poor and also the rate of settlement is too slow due to lack of publicity, shortage of manpower and lack of experience in handling such complaints,” reportedly admitted Inspector General of DIFE, Syed Ahmed, who further underlined that the Government with support from International Labour Organisation (ILO) established the service but the department needed more logistical assistance to make the hotline a success.
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“Workers are not interested to make call through the hotline as none yet got any remedy. I am in doubt whether the authorities record the complaints from the workers properly,” reportedly alleged the President of Combined Garment Workers Federation Nazma Akther, adding, “It was a good initiative but the Government failed to make it effective.”
