538 workers killed in 399 workplace accidents

At least 538 workers were killed in 399 workplace accidents across Bangladesh last year, Safety and Rights Society (SRS) said in a report unveiled Friday.

The number is much higher than in 2020, when 432 workers died in 373 workplace accidents, the non-government organisation said.

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, but the number of deaths from workplace accidents went up.

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 five other workers died in a fire at a plastic factory at Santahar in Bogura.

SRS prepared the report monitoring 26 daily newspapers (15 national and 11 local newspapers) from January 1 to December 31 last year.

The report did not include workers’ deaths outside their workplace or in road accidents on the way to or returning from work. However, on-duty workers killed in road accidents have been included in this survey.

The survey found that most deaths occurred in the transport sector, where 150 workers were killed.

Accidents killed 138 construction workers and 112 others from the manufacturing sector, including garment, plastic factory, ship breaking and steel/re-rolling mills.

Besides, 86 workers died in the services sector, including hotels, workshops, and power supply companies, while 52 agriculture workers were killed.

Road accident was the top cause of workplace accidents that killed 156 workers. Another 82 workers died from electrocution while 72 in fire incidents.

Fifty-eight workers died after falling from heights and lightning strikes killed 49 workers. Some 32 workers were crushed to death by machinery or heavy load or hard objects while 30 others died from inhaling poisonous gas at septic or water tanks. Twenty-seven workers were killed in building/wall/roof collapses while 23 died in explosions. The rest of the nine workers died after drowning.

SRS Executive Director Sekendar Ali Mina said the protracted coronavirus pandemic was tough on workers. “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 said.