US recommends action plan for workers' safety in B'desh

The US has released an action plan for Bangladesh, asking it to increase the number of labour, fire and building inspectors while improving their training and imposing stiffer penalties on those who violate safety standards.

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The action plan aims at improving workers safety in Bangladesh in the wake of global uproar following the collapse of a commercial building here in April that killed 1,129 people in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

The US is making the plan public as a means to reinforce and support the efforts of all international stakeholders to promote improved worker rights and worker safety in Bangladesh, the Obama Administration said in a statement. It also urges Bangladesh to impose stiffer penalties, including taking away export licenses, on garment factories that violate labour, fire or building safety standards.

On the basis of this action plan, the US looks forward to continuing to work with Bangladesh on the actions it needs to take in relation to potential reinstatement of GSP benefits, it said.

The move came after President Barack Obama announced in June to suspend Bangladesh's trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences in view of insufficient progress by the government in Dhaka in affording its workers internationally recognised worker rights.

The garment industry generates USD 20 billion-a-year for Bangladesh while some 4,500 factories employ 3.6 million workers, mostly women and account for 77 per cent of the country's exports.

The action plan urged Bangladesh to develop, in consultation with the International Labor Organization, and implement in line with already agreed targets, a plan to increase the number of government labor, fire and building inspectors, improve their training, establish clear procedures for independent and credible inspections, and expand the resources at their disposal to conduct effective inspections in the readymade garment (RMG), knitwear, and shrimp sectors, including within Export Processing Zones (EPZs).