The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a seminar yesterday laid emphasis on proper training and building awareness of labour law compliances among the workers of the country's selected export-oriented garment factories.

They said the country has made a great leap forward in capacity building on social compliance of export-oriented industries.

It is necessary to negotiate and identify the requirements and compliances matching the country's environment, they added.

"Social compliance is a technical matter and it should be within the context of the country for ensuring the rights and benefits of the working class," they observed at a seminar on 'Labour Law Compliance in Selected Exports Industries of Bangladesh'. The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) jointly organised the programme at the DCCI auditorium.

The main aim of the seminar is to discuss the findings of the DCCI study on the labour law compliance in selected export-oriented industries in the country for analysis of various requirements and status of compliance for recommending appropriate measures to minimise the gap between requirements and compliances.

Hossain Khaled, President of DCCI, made welcome speech and Dr M Maniruzzaman, consultant with the trade body presented keynote paper.

In his speech Dr Mahfuzul Haque, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment said 37 centres are providing technical training to the workers of the export-oriented industries apart from holding regular seminars and symposiums.

On the issue of social compliance, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Hoque said most of the factories under his organisation are ensuring required facilities to the workers and they are ready for any international scrutiny.

"We are taking more initiatives to improve the existing amicable relationships between owners and workers of the garment factories," he said adding that that favourable working environment is always a high priority for the owners to ensure safety and security and welfare of the workers.

"Garment owners alone could not provide ration to their employees, as the profits of all the industries are not the same," he mentioned and called upon the government to come forward in this regard.

The recommendations of the study include strengthening monitoring and supervisory role of the associations particularly of the frozen food, tannery, ceramic, jute and finished leather and footwear sectors, building positive images of the export-oriented industries to the foreign buyers and to activate the task forces to monitor the compliance of the factories.

It was also attended, among others, by Dietrich Stotz, programme coordinator of GTZ, Nazmul Huq, chairman, Bangladesh Jute Mills Association, Nurunnabi Khan, ILO representaive, Barrister Jenifa Jabbar and Khandaker Shahidul Islam, vice president of DCCI.