DHAKA, March 20, 2022 (BSS) - The Board of Directors of the RMG
Sustainability Council (RSC) held a Board meeting at a city hotel on
Saturday.  

  The meeting was convened by Dan Rees, Director, Better Work, ILO and
Neutral Convener of the RSC, and attended by all 18 Directors representing
industry, brands and unions.

   Iqbal M Hussain, MD and Acting CSO conducted the meeting with great
preparation and assistance for RSC staff.  

  It was a productive and fruitful meeting with participation of all the
Directors where the RSC Board took a number of decisions related to the
operational issues of the RSC, especially its financial sustainability and
longevity, a press release said.   

  During the meeting, the Board of Directors were pleased to hear the
progress made by the organisation over the past two years, despite the
challenges presented by COVID 19.

   The funding of the RSC is also secure, with member brands and industry
members contributing jointly to operational costs.   

  Directors' discussion was focused on how to make the RSC more dynamic in
its operations and with the phase of COVID coming to an end, speed up its
activities in the coming days to ensure world-class safety in the RMG
industry of Bangladesh.   

  The discussions also encompassed a long-term plan to further develop the
organization to achieve its primary objective of delivering world-class
sustainable workplace safety programmes in the RMG industry of Bangladesh to
keep it safer and better place to work.  

  The RSC board asserted that the RSC would be instrumental in sustaining the
accomplishments made by RMG sector in workplace safety and sustainability.   

  During the meeting, Iqbal M Hussain, the MD and acting CSO of the RSC, gave
an overview of the organisation's overall performance.   

  He appraised the board that despite significant challenges posed by COVID-
19 pandemic and nation-wide lockdowns, the RSC conducted 5,750 inspections in
15 months (for 6 month no inspection was held due to COVID-19 pandemic) and
has been able to reduce the number of Corrective Action Pan (CAP) of the
behind schedule factories by 4 percent.

  He added that the number of initial CAP completed factories improved by 8
percent.

  The RSC Board of Directors, who participated in the meeting, included
Faruque Hassan, President of BGMEA; Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin ,MP, former
President of BGMEA; Dr Rubana Huq, former President of BGMEA; Miran Ali, Vice
President of BGMEA; Mohammad Hatem, Executive President of BKMEA; Sharif
Zahir, former Director of BGMEA; Christina Hajagos-Clausen, Textile and
Garment Industry Director, IndustriAll; Amirul Haque Amin, President of
National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF); China Rahman, General Secretary
of the IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC); Alke Boessiger, Deputy General
Secretary of UNI Global Union; Babul Akter, general- secretary of the
Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation; Z M Kamrul Anam,
President, Bangladesh Textile and Garment Workers League (BTGWL), Felicity
Tapsell (Bestseller), Masarrat Quader (H&M), Jochen J.- Overmeyer (Otto
Group) and Jorge Alonso Campo, (Inditex).