by Our Foreign Desk

BANGLADESH claimed on Tuesday night that it had met conditions set by the US for better safety and workers’ rights in its factories.

But a leading workers’ rights activist warned that, while Dhaka had made some improvements, a lot more needed to be done to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi factory workers.

“If you talk about safety and structural aspects of the factories, no doubt there is major improvement, but if you take the issues of freedom of association and workers’ right to bargain collectively, we still lag behind,” warned Bangladesh Centre for Workers’ Solidarity director Kalpona Akter.

“We must see practically how it works.”

The government has so far shut down 364 workshops for a lack of proper safety measures.

It said that it had amended labour laws, enacted new rules allowing workers to form unions, increased the number of factory inspectors and settled many contentious criminal cases against trade union leaders.

Authorities insist that some 500 factory-based trade unions have now been registered and that workers’ welfare associations have been formed in special export zones.

But Ms Akter warned: “The registration of 500 or so unions is a fact, but some mainstream trade union groups are not being allowed to register.

“If you look at numbers, it looks good, but many of those are formed and controlled by the owners.”

The government’s claims are being made in order to regain preferential trade status the country lost in 2013 after the collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka during 2013.

That collapse and a fire at Tazreen Fashions the same year left about 1,500 workers dead and hundreds injured.

Garment manufacturing and trade are crucial to Bangladesh’s economy as the industry employs about four million workers, mostly rural women, and many other sectors are heavily dependent upon it.

A delegation from the US trade representative’s office is visiting Bangladesh to review improvements in safety standards and legal changes allowing for wider workers’ rights.

Its approval is needed to reinstate the generalised system of preferences benefit under which the US allows imports of products from 122 of the world’s poorest countries with low or zero tariffs.