Bangladesh Sustainability Compact Achievements

Bangladesh Sustainability Compact Achievements

Bangladesh Sustainability Compact achievements may be categorised in Technical and Legislative achievements.

Technical Achievements:

  • Out of more than 7,000 factories, as of March 2017 approximately 1,580 factories have been inspected and 55 terminated by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh for reasons of workplace safety.
  • The Government of Bangladesh, in collaboration with the ILO has inspected around 1,500 factories. The remaining are expected to go through various inspections by the GoB and other organisations gradually. Bangladesh has strengthened its capacity to inspect factories through an important increase of the budget allocations for the Department of Inspections for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), the number of inspectors as well as the adoption of a labour inspection management reform roadmap and labour inspection strategy. The capacity of the relevant public authorities has been enhanced.
  • The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety inspected 759 factories including all inspections of Alliance factories, including those shared and executed under agreement with the Accord. As of March 2017 it has 676 factories in it’s portfolio as of March 2017.

Legislative Achievements:

  • An improved legislative environment: The Bangladesh Labour Act (BLA) of 2006 was revised in 2013 and has brought some improvements in relation to freedom of association, collective bargaining and workplace safety.
  • The Implementing Rules for the Bangladesh Labour Act were issued in 2015 and provide guidance on central elements of the BLA.
  • An initial increase in trade union registrations: some 351 new garment industry trade unions have been registered since 2012 bringing the total to 483 unions by the end of March 2016.
  • Minimum Wages: The minimum wage for the the readymade garments industry workers has been increased by 77% to BDT 5,300.00 or EUR 61.00 per month since December 2013.

The visiting delegation of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the last week of March, led by Socialists and Democrats Co-rapporteur Mr. Arne Lietz, pointed out that Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress, especially in terms of workplace safety in the garment sector.

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Bangladesh Sustainability Compact Achievements

Written by

Mr. Kauser BHUIYAN is a German educated Economist, former EU diplomat and Wall-Street professional who gained more than two decades of professional experience at Accenture, Bloomberg, European Commission and Stein & Partners. He learned professional skills in the areas of Change Management Consulting, International Financial Market, Economic Co-operation and Sustainability Advisory services in Frankfurt, Zurich, London, New York, Brussels, Islamabad, Dhaka and Bangkok. He re-visits Dhaka as one of the fastest growing and vibrant economies in the region, which he believes to have genuine potentials for attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), depending on Bangladesh’s representation, communication and negotiation capabilities with it’s international economic and development partners, including the European Union (EU). He provides with Advisory and Change Management services to diplomatic missions, international organisations, donor funded programmes and international companies with business interests in Bangladesh. Mr. Bhuiyan may be reached at ask [at] steinandpartners.net