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Factory exits: difficult to find

Garment workers say during survey by retailers' group

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
Around half of the garment workers surveyed by a global alliance of retailers say they cannot leave their factory buildings quickly in case of an emergency.
Around 30 percent of the respondents think there is a high risk of fire in the buildings where they work, according to the survey by Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of 26 US-based clothing retailers and brands.
An upsetting finding was that about half of the respondents had not been trained in fire safety.
The Alliance conducted the baseline survey among more than 3,200 workers in 28 garment factories between November and December last year.
The survey also found 65 percent workers prefer to work on a low floor for safety reasons, even if working on a high floor offers additional financial rewards.
In addition to the survey, 10 focus groups were conducted off-site with 101 participants in three Bangladeshi regions to obtain more nuanced information on fire and other health and safety issues.
The survey pointed to the need for a comprehensive and consistent health and safety training curriculum that can be implemented systematically across factories.
In 34 percent of the surveyed factories, workers say they had witnessed fire incidents.
In the focus groups, participants in all but one of the 10 discussions reported experiencing fires, while 27 percent say they were not given sufficient training on how to protect themselves.
Ellen Tauscher, chairman of the alliance, said:
“Our members have visited Bangladesh, toured local factories and met with government officials and labour leaders to learn about the
magnitude of the country's safety challenges." "We are actively working with the Accord, the government of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, workers' groups, factory owners and other key stakeholders to prevent another factory tragedy and to build a longterm culture of safety."
Tauscher was testifying at a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing styled "Prospects for Democratic Reconciliation and Workers' Rights in Bangladesh" in Washington onTuesday.
The survey also found that workers were trained on fire safety issues to some extent—87 percent have participated in a fire evacuation drill in the last three months, and 73 percent say health and safety was part of their orientation training. In the event of an emergency, most workers (82 percent) know that they need to leave the area using designated escape routes wherever possible.
However, a considerable group of workers think they should find shelter in a safe place inside the building (24 percent) or take the elevator to exit the building (17 percent).
More than half of the workers do not realise that overfilled storage rooms or
electrical wires under the carpets or mats pose a fire hazard.
Although 92 percent workers say they are provided with personal protective equipment, 25 percent of focus group discussion participants say they only wear them when buyers come to visit.
The platform, also known as North American Alliance, was formed after the twin industrial disasters—Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse—to take result oriented initiatives to improve safety for Bangladeshi workers.
Members of the alliance source garment items from around 700 factories that employ 1.28 million workers.
According to a plan of the platform, these factories will undergo fire safety, structural and electrical inspections by July this year to ensure compliance. The 700 factories that make products for the Alliance member companies are only a small fraction of the roughly 5,000 factories in Bangladesh's readymade garment industry, Tauscher said.
Alliance members have also committed nearly $50 million to a worker safety fund, which will be used to provide training and worker empowerment tools.