Karachi factory fire: Fearing fallout, industry keeps its distance

By Our Correspondents Published: September 14, 2012 “Our association does not have the power to check every member factory of ours,” says chairman PRGMEA Shahzad Saleem.PHOTO: AFP ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: The inferno at the Karachi garment factory was contained by Thursday but has left several burning issues behind. Fearing fallout from the inferno, the export-oriented textile industry tried to keep its distance from the ill-fated factory, but also called upon a thorough investigation of the incident. “It is a big incident and we cannot ignore it,” said, chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Shahzad Saleem. The association has 650 members, and Ali Enterprises, the Karachi factory where 259 workers perished, was a member. “Our association does not have the power to check every member factory of ours,” Saleem said when asked what PRGMEA does for safety inspections. “The buyer that places an order with a local company does its own audit of the factory,” he said. Businessmen and leading associations in Karachi, who have links with Ali Enterprises, are not ready to share any information, fearing backlash towards their own businesses. The associations are silent on who buys the products of Ali Enterprises, and how the factory received its audit clearance from local authorities and foreign buyers. The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), which the factory was a member of, issued a press release on Thursday, offering condolences to the affected families. The chamber also pointed out that the incident will give a bad name to the country. “If timely action is not taken to address safety problems and action against those who are responsible for this incident, it would have a negative impact on Pakistani exports, which are already on a decline,” the release said. Illegal constructions Officials of SITE, the industrial estate where the factory is located, said owners of Ali Enterprises had illegal constructions on the premises, against the approved factory map. SITE officials said the maps of basement, ground floor, first and second floor contained emergency exits, but the owners altered the design later. Imran Khan visits factory Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Thusday visited the garment factory and offered his condolences to the victims’ heirs Separate laws for the influential and the weak led to this incident, Khan said. “More than 100 industrial incidents in the last one year expose faulty labour laws and the present government’s indifference to the working class,” he added. He demanded compensation for the victims and a review of safety and social security rules. ILO offers assistance The local chapter of International Labour Organization (ILO) expressed shock over the Karachi fire incident and offered support to the victim’s families ILO Country Director Francesco d’Ovidio will meet the Secretary, Sindh Labour Department on September 14 to discuss ILO’s support for the families of the victims and to help improve labour inspection to prevent such incidents in future, said a press release issued by the agency on Thursday. ILO will also offer institutional capacity building of the Sind Labour Department to improve its efficiency. It offered skills training scholarships to 500 members of the victim’s families and offered technical assistance on rapid training of labour inspectors in Sindh, on promoting fire safety at workplace. Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2012. ============ Those Lives Could be Saved! Farheen Rizvi on 14, Sep 2012 | Be the first to comment | in Category: Insight 73 17 8 145 Farheen Rizvi Karachi, the Sleepless City Part 2 Karachi, the Sleepless City Institutions versus Personalities Suicide of a Seventh Grader Think Beyond Politics for Smaller Units Rate this blog: (average:5.00 out of 5) The garment factory in Karachi has claimed more than 280 lives by now and death toll is constantly rising. According to Pakistani media, it was their salary day and the five story building was full of employees. According to some international media the denim garments stitched in the factory was exported to the international market. The pictures and footages of the factory on the media showed that windows were guarded with bars and grills which were giving the impression that the owner of the factory was more concerned for safeguarding the garments than its employees. According to international media the owners of the factory are two brothers and one of them is out of the country while the other one is on the run, which is a natural reaction by an owner after such incident. In USA, in March of 1911, fire broke into the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory which was located on the top levels of a ten-story Building in Manhattan. Fire quickly spread and killed more than 500 workers, most of them were immigrant women, as young as 12 years old, from Russia, Italy, Germany, and Hungary. In the result of this horrible disaster rules of municipal, state, and federal association were reformed to ensure the better working conditions for the workers, and stronger unions in the garment industry was made to bargain on safety and working conditions and to lobby for legislative reforms. In 2010, 25 workers were killed in Dhaka, when the fire broke into a clothes factory. According to Dhaka Police some of the people were killed due to jumping from that 11-story building. BBC reported after this incident in Bangladesh that “frequent accidents in factories have triggered calls for more inspections to check fire safety in large industrial units”. The Western companies issue accountability certificate “social compliance” also called SA8000 which not only includes the particular organization’s practices but also include its supply and distribution chains. In the process of issuing this certificate the involved parties keep on looking for better ways to protect the health,safety, and fundamental rights for their employees, and also protect and enhance the community and environment in which they operate. If the garment and other factories in Asia are the part of their supply chain to the big giants sitting in the western Countries like USA and Europe, then it is also a responsibility of those companies to properly inspect the working conditions of those factories where the cheap labor is working day and night to fulfill their orders. Most of the workers get killed in the incidents of garments factories are women on daily wages who come out of their houses by challenging the culture of their countries to support their children and young siblings. The Western companies should work hard by taking charge of this responsibility by sending their officials on regular inspections to those factories as they save a lot on labor expense in Western countries. These workers put lots of efforts to fulfill their orders in conditions where they face shortage of electricity, strikes, threats from gangs and mafias and instability in and politics economy. They are not insured for health and life and if they don’t show up for some reason, they lose money for their daily living. The daily incidents of fire in countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the wakeup call for Western companies to re-evaluate the licenses of their suppliers and put extra efforts to protect and the lives of those who are working days and nights to complete their orders through which they make billions in profit. =================== HRCP slams deaths in factory fires Lahore, September 12: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed grief and grave concern at the death of at least 250 people in devastating fires that gutted two factories in Karachi and Lahore and demanded immediate attention to ensuring safe working conditions for factory workers across the country. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Commission said: “HRCP is deeply saddened and acutely concerned both by the high toll of life claimed by fires at factories in Lahore and Karachi on Tuesday as well as the factors that contributed to the tragic incidents. According to media report, the death toll at a garments factory in Karachi stands at around 230 and many people are injured or unaccounted for. It appears that only a few workers in the factory at the time of the fire could get out safely. There were 35 workers in the shoe factory in Lahore when the fire erupted there. At least 25 of them have now been confirmed dead and all of the rest are injured. “The government has announced probes into the incidents but many of the factors that contributed to the fires and the high death toll are known to most people who have even a casual interest in working conditions at such establishments. It is already known that absence of multiple exit-entry points prevented the workers from escaping the infernos in time. The factory in Lahore only had one entry/exit point. In Karachi, many workers suffered broken bones as they jumped out of windows of the four-storey building to save their lives. Highly inflammable substances were stored without safety measures and lack of fire alarms and fire-fighting equipment aggravated the situation. “While the government probes the causes of these terrible incidents, it should also investigate and share with the people why these factories were allowed to operate without observing safety measures. Why were these factories not challaned for unsafe storage of substances? Why had no one paid attention to lack of multiple entry/exit points and absence of safe evacuation plans in case of emergency? “It is obvious that in both cases the proprietors had prioritized profit above all else and showed utter disregard for workers’ safety, but was the government not supposed to watch out for the interests of the workers including safe working conditions for them? The head of the fire-fighting operations in Karachi has noted that the factory was “dangerous”, “flimsily built” and that there were no emergency exits. Why did all of that escape official attention earlier? “The entire fire-fighting fleet of Karachi, including those from the navy, the air force and the Karachi Port Trust, struggled for long hours to douse the flames. Their efforts are laudable but the capacity to fight fires even in the country’s biggest city is questionable at best. Things are worse elsewhere in Pakistan. It is hoped that the official probes will look at that aspect as well. “Our heart goes out to the victims and their families. We hope and demand that the government will announce adequate compensation for the families of the deceased and provide the best medical care possible to the injured. HRCP also calls upon the government to initiate criminal proceedings against the factory owners and ensure in consultation with workers’ representative, safe working conditions at the workplace as well as initiate effective monitoring of workplaces by inspectors to prevent such tragic incidents in the future.” Zohra Yusuf Chairperson ================== Italy-based firm under fire for Karachi factory disaster By Farhan Zaheer Published: November 1, 2012 Italy-based company RINA had issued a SA8000 certificate to Ali Enterprises just three weeks before the fire broke out on September 11, 2012. SA8000 is a compliance certification granted after an audit of a company’s policies, procedures and documentation, to ensure a safe workplace. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE KARACHI: The devastating inferno at a garment factory in Baldia Town, which claimed the lives of over 250 workers, raises some pressing concerns over the credibility of international safety certifications granted to local companies. Italy-based company RINA had issued a SA8000 certificate to Ali Enterprises just three weeks before the fire broke out on September 11, 2012. SA8000 is a compliance certification granted after an audit of a company’s policies, procedures and documentation, to ensure a safe workplace. “We have been continuously voicing concerns about local factories not following the labour laws of Pakistan completely,” Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) Executive Director Karamat Ali told The Express Tribune. He added the practice of acquiring such certifications was a good one, but did not really reflect the working conditions of these factories. “If Ali Enterprises was following basic safety standards, the fire would not have resulted in the loss of precious lives.” Ali said Piler was contacted by RINA after the disaster. “We told them (RINA) that they are equally responsible for the incident. It shows that SA8000 was not being implemented at the factory, and raises serious doubts about the authenticity of these international certifications.” Ali Enterprises was part of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA), which has over 600 members. PRGMEA officials said their investigations regarding Ali Enterprises are ongoing and that they are also conducting audits of other factories which are members of the association to ensure safety and other standards are being followed. Organisations fighting for labour rights, however, are wary of the government’s efforts regarding ongoing investigations, which are being spearheaded by retired judges. Piler has demanded the government to form a commission of sitting judges to probe the matter. Organisations working for labour rights in Europe and the United States are also in touch with their counterparts in Pakistan such as Piler. They believe RINA is using delaying tactics in the Ali Enterprises case. RINA did not respond to queries until the filing of this story. A global organisation called The Clean Clothes Campaign maintains KIK, a low cost German brand which supplied raw material to Ali Enterprises, is not willing to share information about customers of Ali Enterprises. KIK recently announced its decision to pay $2,000 as compensation to the families of each victim of the fatal accident, but activists say it needs to do more. Who will watch the watchdogs? The SA8000 certification process is managed by the Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS), an independent body formed by Social Accountability International (SAI). SAI is a non-governmental organisation working to promote workers rights in several countries. Currently, 21 certification bodies are accredited by SAAS to conduct SA8000 certifications, and RINA, Italy is one of them. RINA has its office in Karachi and has so far certified 100 companies in Pakistan. It has, however, stopped giving new certifications after the fire. The accreditation process is similar to licensing, wherein SAAS evaluates a firm’s capacity to thoroughly audit a workplace. Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2012. ==================