The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), German international cooperation agency GIZ and Particip GmbH have paired up to strengthen capacity of factory participation, safety and anti-harassment committees.
The organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this end on Thursday.
BGMEA president Faruque Hassan, GIZ's STILE project coordinator Dr Michael Klode and Particip senior adviser Md Manjur Morshed inked the MoU on behalf of their respective sides at BGMEA Gulshan office.
The agreement aims to enable these committees to build and maintain a healthy relationship among both workers and management representatives of each committee.
The BGMEA master trainers, who were given five-day ToT training, will train several factory committee members in the participating member factories to develop their capacities and functions more effectively.
Mr Hassan says, "The RMG industry of Bangladesh has made unprecedented efforts and progress in workplace safety, particularly in fire, electrical and structural integrity over the past eight years."
Over the years, massive training and awareness-building initiatives like fire drills, occupational safety and health issues as well as social dialogue and industrial relations were taken to create the culture of safety.
"I hope this initiative will strengthen the capacity of workers and management representatives to make different committees more functional," adds Mr Hassan.
Mr Klode says, "GIZ's objective is to facilitate experiencing the benefits of dialogue and communication between management, supervisors and workers on the factory floor."
"Therefore, we are happy to work with BGMEA to address a range of factory committees to ensure better communication about social and environmental standards, also gender issues that lead to more efficiency and higher productivity."
BGMEA directors Faisal Samad and Rajiv Chowdhury, former director ANM Saifuddin and GIZ senior adviser Sarwat Ahmad were present at the MoU-signing ceremony.
