Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) has failed to record the large number of workers’ details due to its lackluster approach to get the job done. However, the association has brought about 1,550 RMG units under the database system as of April 21.

The government earlier asked the sector people to complete their workers’ bio-metric documentation within June 15. BKMEA is the platform of knitwear manufacturers, while BGMEA represents the owners of woven manufacturers of Bangladesh.

Following the collapse of Rana Plaza, the issue of central database came under the spotlight as there was no accurate number of workers that worked for the factories. In the aftermath of the industrial disaster, buyers, brands, trade unions from home and abroad, plus rights group put pressure on the manufacturers and the government to create a central database containing workers’ details.

According to BKMEA, it has 2,192 members, who employ about 2.1m workers.

BKMEA, Systech Digital Limited and Tiger IT Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the bio-metric database for the workers on January 18, 2014.

This poor performance is only due to the negligence and dilly-dallying of the board, a former BKMEA leader said, preferring not to be named. If the authority took stern action, it could be completed earlier, he added.