A four-day introductory training course for 35 of the new inspectors commenced in Dhaka today (24 February 2015) organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH which is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in cooperation with the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
 

The course will see the newly recruited labour inspectors trained in a variety of areas. These include national labour law, fire and building safety as well as inspection techniques. As part of the training, participants will also take part in a factory visit to practice putting their skills to use in a real-life environment. All 110 inspectors will have undergone the training by March 2015.
 

“ILO’s vision is to support Bangladesh to develop a modern, transparent and credible labour inspection system. The newly recruited labour inspectors will play a vital role not only in helping prevent disasters but in enhancing working conditions across all industrial sectors,” said ILO Deputy Country Director Gagan Rajbhandari.

Following the collapse of Rana Plaza in April 2013 the Government of Bangladesh committed to strongly enhance the capacity of DIFE including the recruitment of an additional 200 labour inspectors. The new intake of inspectors brings those recruited since Rana Plaza to 178 and the overall total to 260.

“The training of 110 new labour inspectors is an important step forward to ensure workplace safety for garment workers after Tazreen and Rana Plaza incidents, which is appreciated worldwide,” said Magnus Schmid, Programme Coordinator of Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES), a joint project by the Bangladesh and German governments, implemented by GIZ.

“I am very proud that GIZ provides three well-experienced permanent trainers from its staff for the training programme. As GIZ has worked with more than 700 factories so far, we are able to offer on-the-job training for the inspectors in our partner factories,” Mr Schmid added.

The training is taking place within the framework of the ILO’s Project Improving working conditions in the ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh programme and GIZ’s Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES) initiative. The ILO project is funded by Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.