Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) won't shoulder the responsibility for any problems surfaced because of awarding subcontracts to the garment factories that are not affiliated with the trade body.
The apparel apex body, representatives of some 4,000 woven and sweater makers, with US$19.39 billion export earnings, has come up with the decision recently.
Bangladesh fetched $42.61 billion from readymade garment (RMG) exports in the fiscal year of 2021-22, according to official data.
Through a notification issued on Thursday, BGMEA informed its member units of the decision taken on August 10 at the first meeting of its standing committee on subcontracting.
The committee will, however, render its support to its registered units if they inform the committee prior to awarding subcontracts to non-member factories, read the notification.
It also advised its member factories to inform the trade body's customs cell if any dispute or complaint arises.
There are a good number of garment factories that are operating on subcontract for the units registered, respectively, with BGMEA and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), sources said.
As a result, these unregistered factories pose safety risks to workers as the majority of them remain outside the purview of the factory inspection that took place after the Rana Plaza building collapse, industry insiders said.
After the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013, many factories that failed to comply with safety standards were closed while the number of such non-member factories has increased over time in the country due to flooded work orders, especially after the post-lockdown period, they added.
Asked, BGMEA Vice President Md Shahidullah Azim said the units that operate on subcontract play an important role but in many cases crises related to safety and other issues arise.
"We will not take any responsibility if the factories that have been awarded the subcontracts are not members of BGMEA," he said.
There are some 400-500 such units that are contributing to some $3.0-4.0 billion export earnings, said Mr Azim.
The number of such units decreased in recent months with the falling trend of work orders, he said, adding that small factories are suffering the most as work orders have declined to 20-30 per cent recently.
According to the Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB), there are a total of 1,104 non-member garment factories out of the 3,861 units mapped as of June last.
MiB, a 5-year project to develop a digital database of RMG workers since April 2017, has already created a database of RMG factories, covering factory name, address, GPS, registration status, building type, worker, exporting countries, customers, and certification.
These 1,104 non-member factories have created employment for some 0.22 million workers - 40.53 per cent male and 59.47 per cent female workers, according to MiB data.
Out of the 1,104 units, some 488 are knitwear, 309 sweater and 192 woven, while the rest 115 are mixed item manufacturers.
