"Most RMG factories fall short of reopening criteria as virus lockdown unwinds", 13 May 2020

Bangladesh has gradually rolled back the lockdown restrictions despite an escalating coronavirus outbreak, allowing garment factories to reopen on a limited scale... subject to their compliance with health and safety guidelines to reduce the risk of contagion among workers.

Nevertheless, the health and hygiene protocols set out by apparel exporters' lobby BGMEA and other owners' associations were not implemented in most of the cases initially.

Apart from healthy workers, even those who had been infected with the novel coronavirus were eager to return to work once the factories began opening in phases...

“We went through the media reports and found that more than one hundred workers have been infected with COVID-19 until now...” Taslima Akhter, president of Shramik Sanghati Andolon, told bdnews24.com. She pointed to the failure of factories to enforce the safety protocols as infected workers were allowed to stream back into work...