The drive to maintain set standards of safety for workers in readymade garment (RMG) factories, undertaken by International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the government in the aftermath of Rana Plaza building collapse, will continue for another three months. More than 300 units are yet to be inspected. The safety campaign, which was started in February, last year, had December 2014 as its deadline, which due to incompletion of task was extended to July 31. Again in the light of the same problem, it was extended to another three months.

Shedding light on the matter, Bangladesh labour secretary Mikail Shiper said, the deadline extension has been due to factory-owners’ demand for more time to complete fire, electricity and other safety parameters. They have time now until October 31 to get the work done at their premises.

He also stated that they had shortlisted 13 engineering firms for the purpose of assessment, and seeing that only two were in the job of inspection now, they have allowed factory owners to choose any listed firm on their own for this purpose. Questions were being raised by factory owners over the activities of field resource, wherein field resources people alleged to have been involved in provoking workers outside of the factories.