Strictly enforce labour laws

There is little awareness among workers and employers of labour rights and laws. One of the reasons why workplace accidents occur so frequently is that those responsible for these accidents are not held accountable or managed to escape through various loopholes that exist in our legal structure.

Against this background speakers at a programme on Sunday urged the government to take necessary steps to implement labour laws properly in the country to ensure workplace safety. Speakers made the observations at a roundtable, titled “Ten years of Rana Plaza tragedy: Present situation of garment workers and way forward”, at a local hotel in Dhaka.

Unfortunately, apart from a bit of rhetoric about investigations, a few messages of sympathy from leaders, and some compensation packages for victims' no meaningful changes follow a major industrial accident. Investigations into these accidents take years. Perpetrators are often never brought to justice, and issues are swept under the carpet. Unless exemplary punishments are meted out to those responsible, accidents will continue to occur, and workers will continue to die.

Most deaths occur in the transport sector, where as many as 150 workers were killed. This is no surprise given the high number of road accidents. That the construction sector with 138 casualties comes, a close second is also unsurprising. Here is an area where workers are at the highest risk of falling from precarious perches they find themselves on. They are compelled to work on tall buildings or under gigantic structures in the most inconvenient manner imaginable.

In the shipbreaking industry, the import of old ships without pre-cleaning or the removal of toxic gases and dangerous materials from the ships often leads to explosions and puts workers' lives and health in jeopardy.

It is unfortunate that the lives of workers, particularly the contractual ones, are considered cheap in Bangladesh more often than not. Workers assigned to the riskiest jobs have no life insurance. In the informal sector – lathe operators or workers at plastic factories, for instance– do not have permanent employment. They are laid off when injured. In case of death, their families rarely receive any compensation. The Department for Inspection of Factories and Establishment (DIFE) must ensure that factories do not run without safety equipment. Insurance for workplace accidents should be made compulsory.

We are deeply concerned about the fact that an increasing number of incidents are taking place due to a lack of appropriate safety measures at workplaces, which not only claimed precious lives but also caused financial loss. It goes without saying that an accident takes place without any prior notice. But at workplaces, all necessary precautions should be made for the protection of the workers from accidents and death. In the recent past, it has been seen that there is a lack of adequate preventive measures and precautions against accidents in factories, shops and warehouses of chemicals and explosives. Steps should be taken to improve this situation. Moreover, arrangements should be made for sufficient compensation for the victims of industrial accidents. Many promises have been made to strengthen labour inspections in Bangladesh but this is not an issue that can be tackled without a public campaign led by the government. There is also a need to create awareness among the masses about safety measures at workplaces and the media should play its role in this regard. As Bangladesh continues the journey on its development path its workers must be protected and provided safe working conditions. This could incentivise higher-quality foreign investment, across a broader range of manufacturing, and lay the foundations for sustainable development in the years ahead.