At least 538 workers were killed in 399 workplace accidents across the country in 2021, says a survey report of Safety and Rights Society (SRS) unveiled on Friday.
While in 2020, 432 workers died in 373 workplace accidents said the non-government labour rights organization.
In the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers could not work for about five months from April to August due to various restrictions including lay off, but the number of deaths in workplace accidents has increased.
The most dreadful incident was the fire at the Shezan juice factory in Rupganj, where 52 workers were burnt to death. Besides, five workers were killed in a fire at Romana Rubber Factory in Soarighat and other five workers died from a fire at a plastic factory at Santahar in Bogra.
SRS prepared the report monitoring 26 daily newspapers (15 national and 11 local newspapers) from January 1 to December 31 of 2021.
The report did not include the deaths of workers outside the workplace or in road accidents on the way to or returning from workplaces. However, on-duty workers who were killed in road accidents have been counted in this survey.
The survey found that the highest number of deaths occurred in the transport sector as 150 transport workers were killed in road crashes.
Some 138 workers were also killed in the construction sector while 112 workers were killed in manufacturing sector which included garment, plastic factory, ship breaking, steel/re-rolling mills.
Besides, 86 workers died at service sector which included hotels, workshops, power supply organizations while 52 workers in agriculture sector killed during the time.
Road accident was found top among the causes of workplace accidents that killed 156 workers. Further 82 workers died from electrocution while 72 in fire incidents.
58 workers died after falling from heights where 49 workers died in lightning strikes. Some 32 workers died after being crushed through falling machinery or heavy load or hard objects while 30 workers died from inhaling poisonous gas at septic or water tanks. 27 workers were killed in building, wall or roof collapses while 23 died in explosions. The rest of the nine workers died after drowning in water.
The SRS Executive Director Sekendar Ali Mina said the consecutive second year of Covid was not at all blessing for the workers. On the other hand, many workers had lost their jobs and many others were victim to accidents, when they were at work.
“Decent working environment is must for a sustainable development in and every expenditure for ensuring the safety of workers should be treated as an investment,” he added.
