Six months past taking over the responsibility of ensuring workplace safety in the garment sector, RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) is yet to honour its commitment to recruit a boiler inspector, said global rights group Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC).

Moreover, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) continues to claim that the RSC is committed to a boiler safety inspection programme first initiated as a pilot in 2018, reads a recent CCC statement.

As explained in the brief of a "Witness Signatories", the Accord brands and unions agreed with the BGMEA to start the roll-out of the boiler safety programme at the start of the RSC's establishment, it said.

One of the most important commitments made in that "Transition Agreement", the recruitment of an independent chief safety officer (CSO) remains unfulfilled, it added.

"A CSO, with the same independence, autonomy, authority, and reporting requirements as elaborated and practiced by the Accord, is essential for the quality and credibility of the inspection programme," said the CCC.

On another note, the BGMEA in statement falsely claims that the RSC is founded on the core principle that its governance structure brings together all critical stakeholders in one single platform with equal voice and authority, said the rights group.

In reality, of the RSC's 18 governing board directors, 12 are representatives of financially-vested companies (six brands and six factory owners) while workers' representatives (global and local unions) make up only a third of its members, it said.

Moreover, the BGMEA claims that the RSC is fully committed to a high level of transparency as practiced under the Accord, said the CCC.

In reality, unlike the Accord, the RSC's website, six months after the organisation's inception, provides none of the following information: factory-specific remediation data, aggregate reports, nor minutes of its board meetings, it said.

When The Daily Star put forth these allegations, BGMEA President Rubana Huq responded over WatsApp yesterday, saying that the BGMEA, as an association, cannot issue a "false statement".

Neither can it afford to have "Unsubstantiated Commitments" to building safety in Bangladesh, "especially when the industry belongs to us and safety of the industry is key to our survival", she said.

The RSC has received a number of CSO applications which are being reviewed and a CSO should be in place by April 2021. In the meantime, the managing director is acting as the interim CSO, claimed Huq.

The BGMEA president also said the pilot programme for boiler safety "has not been stopped" and that the government has inspection standards and engineers "who are ready to engage with RSC on boiler inspections", she said.

The RSC is founded on the core principle that its governance structure is all inclusive, she said.

The RSC structure has participation from brands and labour representatives, a majority of whom are overlapping members of Accord, she said.

"Therefore there is Accord representation on the board. And industry is only one third in the board. To club industry with brands and say that these are 'financially vested' companies is absurd," Huq said.

The RSC board has formed a committee for including the critical stakeholders in the advisory council already and this was adopted as a resolution during last board meeting, she said.

"Therefore the claim that the board has refused to include any key group of critical stakeholders, labour-rights NGOs, is false," she added.

The RSC website is "almost ready", it will "mirror all the data that Accord previously shared" and there will be "no exception to that rule", said Huq.

The issue of sharing meeting minutes was agreed upon during an RSC executive board meeting two weeks back. "Thus, this claim is also dated," she said.

"…and hence, there's no scope for any of us from within the industry to be passive about the level and standard of safety," she added.

"Business cannot be devoid of finance. And without business, how would there be any industry, without which the workers would have no employment?" she asked.

"If Accord could be a meeting ground for brands and labour, why would a national initiative, which has Accord reps on board, be questioned?" she questioned.

Pointing out that the composition had been well known to all for a long time, Huq in turn questioned the justification of objections at this point.