The US administration and trade representatives in a joint statement have said Bangladesh has made “some important progress” in ensuring factory safety and workers rights.
But “there is much more work still to be done”, the statement said on Wednesday.
The US Department of State, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the Agency for International Development, and the Department of Labour made the joint statement marking the one-year anniversary of the worst-ever building collapse.
The Rana Plaza collapse on Apr 14 last year killed more than 1,100 people mostly garments workers at Dhaka suburbs of Savar.
It has been the worst industrial disaster in the history of the garment industry, according to the statement.
The US finds the disaster similar to the ‘Triangle Shirtwaist’ disaster in the United States over one hundred years ago.
The statement said Rana Plaza and the Tazreen factory fire that preceded it in Nov 2012 have become “potent symbols of the significant and unnecessary risks that many workers are still forced to take in order to earn a living and support their families”.
“As we mourn the victims, we are again called to action so that tragedies like Rana Plaza and Tazreen never happen again,” according to the statement.
The US with all stakeholders is implementing an action plan laid out after President Barack Obama suspended Bangladesh’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences program (GSP) last June.
The statement identified some progresses and also pointed out those that they felt still needs to be done.
For example, Bangladesh has allowed over 140 unions to register, permitted re-registration of a leading labor rights non-governmental organisation that had been stripped of its registration.
It has agreed to an ambitious plan for safety inspections and factory-level monitoring and remediation across the garment sector in collaboration with the ILO, added the statement.
It has begun the hiring of new labour inspectors, and conducted preliminary safety inspections.
But, according to the statement: “There continue to be concerns about basic worker rights protections under both Bangladesh’s labor law and its special Export Processing Zone law.
“The Bangladesh government’s hiring of inspectors is lagging, and the results of inspections need to be made publicly available on an easily accessible database.
“The government of Bangladesh must also do more to ensure protection when workers face intimidation and reprisals for trying to organize”.
Addressing these issues would help workers secure safer working conditions and better wages and enable Bangladesh to realize its full economic potential, it said.
It also held all stakeholders in Bangladesh – including the government, employers, and buyers of Bangladeshi products – responsible for ensuring safe working conditions that workers have a voice to protect their interests.
The statement also said the US was “closely coordinating” with the European Union and the ILO, key partners in a July 2013 Sustainability Compact on worker rights and factory safety in Bangladesh.
Source: Bd news24