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British firm diverts export order to Dhaka in protest against factory tragedy
KARACHI: A British firm has diverted millions of dollars worth of export order of garments from Pakistan to Bangladesh on Saturday in protest of Karachi factory’s fire incident that took the lives of nearly 300 workers this week, reported a participant at the Jang Forum.
“A British woman, who had travelled all the way from UK to Pakistan to place an export order of garments worth millions of dollars, left the country without doing so in protest of the Karachi tragedy,” said Muhammad Javed, who is a social worker and a former politician from Peshawar.
He said that she had travelled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to place the same order after she received a phone call from her principal officer from the UK. “She had a scheduled flight to Dhaka at 4pm today,” he added.
Two speakers at the forum – Ahsanullah Khan, chairman of Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan and Engineer MA Jabbar, former chairman of SITE Association – were of the opinion that Pakistan could see more cancellation of exports’ orders, especially in the garment sector.
“The country may continue to face problems in receiving exports order till the owners of the factory and responsible officials do not clarify the situation,” said Khan.
Speakers reiterated that all the required laws for health and safety of workers at factories were available but there was great need to implement them.
Jabbar said that it’s common practice to see factory owners fail to implement health and safety measure for workers. He added that there were some measures only on papers to acquire exporters’ certificates but they were not implemented in letter and spirit.
He also admitted that factories running illegally avoided factory inspections and bribed concerned officials. “There are as many as 29 inspection agencies for checking health and safety measures at manufacturing units in the country but the cost factor keeps factory owners escaping such inspections,” he said.
A participant, who works at a firm located at the Karachi Export Processing Zone, reported that his factory dealt in flammable chemicals and made exports to Africa. He revealed that his firm itself had issued health and safety assurance letters to its importing firms against some bribe to the concerned officials.
CL Nankani, former joint director of labour, health and safety department, said that the penalty of non-compliance of health and safety laws provided in the Factory Act of 1934 remained unchanged at Rs500 for owners.
He suggested reviewing the penalty provision in the law.
Another participant at the forum observed that the concerned officials have not yet ordered initiating a survey to check work standards for employees of other factories in the country nor was any other factory closed for the same problems.
Another participant suggested registering the affected family under the Benazir Income Support Program, saying that many of the families had lost their bread earners.
He further said that trade unions just talked about raise in pay and issuance of bonuses to workers but they seldom highlighted issues related to workers’ health and safety.
British firm diverts export order to Dhaka in protest against factory tragedy - thenews.com.pk
KARACHI: A British firm has diverted millions of dollars worth of export order of garments from Pakistan to Bangladesh on Saturday in protest of Karachi factory’s fire incident that took the lives of nearly 300 workers this week, reported a participant at the Jang Forum.
“A British woman, who had travelled all the way from UK to Pakistan to place an export order of garments worth millions of dollars, left the country without doing so in protest of the Karachi tragedy,” said Muhammad Javed, who is a social worker and a former politician from Peshawar.
He said that she had travelled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to place the same order after she received a phone call from her principal officer from the UK. “She had a scheduled flight to Dhaka at 4pm today,” he added.
Two speakers at the forum – Ahsanullah Khan, chairman of Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan and Engineer MA Jabbar, former chairman of SITE Association – were of the opinion that Pakistan could see more cancellation of exports’ orders, especially in the garment sector.
“The country may continue to face problems in receiving exports order till the owners of the factory and responsible officials do not clarify the situation,” said Khan.
Speakers reiterated that all the required laws for health and safety of workers at factories were available but there was great need to implement them.
Jabbar said that it’s common practice to see factory owners fail to implement health and safety measure for workers. He added that there were some measures only on papers to acquire exporters’ certificates but they were not implemented in letter and spirit.
He also admitted that factories running illegally avoided factory inspections and bribed concerned officials. “There are as many as 29 inspection agencies for checking health and safety measures at manufacturing units in the country but the cost factor keeps factory owners escaping such inspections,” he said.
A participant, who works at a firm located at the Karachi Export Processing Zone, reported that his factory dealt in flammable chemicals and made exports to Africa. He revealed that his firm itself had issued health and safety assurance letters to its importing firms against some bribe to the concerned officials.
CL Nankani, former joint director of labour, health and safety department, said that the penalty of non-compliance of health and safety laws provided in the Factory Act of 1934 remained unchanged at Rs500 for owners.
He suggested reviewing the penalty provision in the law.
Another participant at the forum observed that the concerned officials have not yet ordered initiating a survey to check work standards for employees of other factories in the country nor was any other factory closed for the same problems.
Another participant suggested registering the affected family under the Benazir Income Support Program, saying that many of the families had lost their bread earners.
He further said that trade unions just talked about raise in pay and issuance of bonuses to workers but they seldom highlighted issues related to workers’ health and safety.
British firm diverts export order to Dhaka in protest against factory tragedy - thenews.com.pk
