Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), German international cooperation enterprise (GIZ) and the Particip GmbH (Particip) on Thursday teamed up to strengthen capacity of factory participation, safety and anti-harassment committees.
They signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard.
Faruque Hassan, president, BGMEA; Dr. Michael Klode, GIZ project coordinator STILE and Md Manjur Morshed, senior adviser, Particip GmbH inked the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations at BGMEA’s Gulshan office.
The MoU aims to enable these committees to build and maintain a healthy relationship among both workers and management representatives of each committee.
Under the agreement, the master trainers of BGMEA who were provided with a five-day ToT training, will train several factory committee members in the participating member factories to develop their capacities and function more effectively, it added.
Faruque Hassan said, “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 these years massive training and awareness building initiatives were undertaken to create the culture of safety, which covered fire safety drills and other occupational safety and health issues, as well as social dialogue and industrial relations.
"I hope this initiative will strengthen the capacity of workers and management representatives to make different committees more functional," he added.
Mr Michael Klode said, “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," he noted.
BGMEA Directors Faisal Samad and Rajiv Chowdhury, former BGMEA Director ANM Saifuddin and Senior Adviser at GIZ Sarwat Ahmad were present at MoU signing ceremony.
