Thousands of garment workers sacked as unsafe Bangladesh factory closes

Several thousand Bangladeshi garment workers have lost their jobs after their factory was discovered to have serious safety problems and shut down.

Several thousand Bangladeshi garment workers have lost their jobs after their factory was discovered to have serious safety problems and shut down.

A team of experts ordered the evacuation of six floors of two adjoining buildings housing clothing firms Softex and Fame Knitting following an inspection last week which discovered serious structural flaws.

Softex, a sweater maker and a supplier to French retailer Auchan, shut down immediately, laying off all 3,500 workers, saying "it was risky to continue operations".

"I know what has happened to the workers is unfair," Softex chief executive officer Rezwan Seilm said.

"But the inspectors told me that the building has serious structural problems and asked us to evacuate the floors."

Mr Seilm said he was "desperately trying" to pay three months worth of wages to the workers from the factory in Mirpur in the northern suburb of Dhaka.

Fame Knitting, employing about 2,500 workers, also closed for a few days last week after engineers involved in the inspection requested reduced weight on some of the floors, an official said.

Unions have criticised Softex and Fame for failing to compensate the workers, but a trade group representing garment factories said retailers must shoulder some of the costs.

"We're closing down plants as part of their (retailers') suggestions. So they must pay the affected factories to compensate their workers," Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said.

The factory was the first to close following the mass inspections organised by dozens of Western retailers such as H&M and Benetton, who signed a new safety accord in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse last year that killed 1,135 people.

As part of the accord, the retailers agreed to bankroll the safety inspections and loan the money for upgrades.

The head of the inspection team, Rob Wayss, said the factory has not been ordered to close down, but it has been asked strengthen the building's structural columns.

Mr Wayss, who has been appointed by the retailers and global unions to look after factory inspections, said factories located on other floors of the twin-building containing 15 floors in total can continue operations.

"We've told the factories that they can operate in the remaining floors," he said.

"We've also asked them to strengthen columns of the buildings."

Inspections highlight safety risks

Initial inspections of Bangladesh garment factories organised after the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex have found safety problems including overloaded ceilings, exposed cables and locked fire escapes, an industry-backed group said on Monday.

More than 150 clothing brands and retailers, including the world's top fashion chains Inditex and H&M, have joined the Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which announced results of 10 initial inspections.

"We have been getting great cooperation. We trust that will continue," Brad Loewen, chief safety inspector for the Accord, said ahead of the publication of the inspection reports planned in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Among the issues uncovered in initial inspections, Mr Loewen highlighted locks on fire exits, inadequate fire alarm and sprinkler systems, chaotic cabling and overladen buildings.

He showed a photograph of a ceiling beam visibly bowing under the weight of sacks of cotton stacked on the floor above, adding inspectors had ordered the load to be removed.

Factories are given two weeks notice of an inspection, which monitors structural, fire and electrical safety.

"We're not trying to catch people out here. We're trying to create a sustainable, safe working environment," Accord executive director of international operations, Alan Roberts, said.

Mr Roberts said factory owners are responsible for paying to address safety issues raised by inspectors, although brands had agreed to help find funding if the owners cannot afford it.

Four contracted engineering firms and 25 staff engineers plan to inspect the 1,500 factories used by the Accord brands by the end of August, starting with the highest-risk buildings with more than five floors.

Bangladesh is the world's second biggest clothing manufacturer and the $US22 billion sector is the mainstay of the impoverished South Asian nation's economy.

AFP/Reuters