The ILO's move to launch a pilot project on employment injury insurance scheme in Bangladesh should be considered a positive step towards promoting workers' welfare at their workplace. Such a scheme will be executed at this stage as a pilot project for readymade garment (RMG) workers. This will later be replicated in other industrial units in phases. The scheme, as the terms of reference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) mention, is aimed at providing temporary and permanent disability and survival benefits to workers, health care for the injured and disabled ones as well as their physical and vocational rehabilitation.
It is still not known whether the ILO submitted its plan to the government after consulting the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). This consultation is necessary to smoothen out matters in this critical area. Reportedly, there are a number of such schemes but under different names. Garment workers are reported to be already covered under life insurance. They get compensation in case of accidents. Factory owners bear the treatment costs. In case of death of any worker while on work, his or her heirs get Tk 0.2 million from insurance companies. The BGMEA has already made life insurance of workers compulsory for every factory to get services from it as well as other benefits that are directly or indirectly provided by the government. The workers of garment factories in Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions got such benefits.
For all stakeholders who are involved with extensive reforms in the RMG sector, it is important to ensure that welfare programmes are not unnecessarily duplicated in the same sector. New fields of supportive actions like providing skills to the workers also need to be covered by the ILO and Western brands and retailers. In this context, it is disheartening to note that foreigners involved with the country's industries and other sectors, remit out more than Tk 6.0 billion abroad as wages and salaries annually as the country lacks in human resources having relevant skills. This is happening at a time when the country's unskilled thousands are remaining unemployed. The stakeholders need to take up skill development programmes in mills and factories extensively so that productivity of workers with higher wages is raised, while not ignoring the need for upgrading skill and imparting proper education to the country's workforce. Otherwise, recruitment of the local manpower in mid-and key-level management positions in the country's industrial sector will be well-nigh impossible.
There has so far been a positive response from the RMG manufacturers to more labour welfare measures, in close cooperation with Western brands and retailers. Apparels are otherwise sourced from Bangladesh because of their cheaper prices than those of China and other countries. Rising wages have made RMG factories in these countries uncompetitive. In this context, the issue of skill upgradation and productivity improvement should also draw the attention of all the stakeholders in the country's apparel-making sector, now that wages for workers have considerably been enhanced in the recent times. The enforcement of the minimum wages and other relevant measures related to welfare of workers and their safety at the workplace will help the cause.
Insurance scheme for workplace injury
FE Team | Published: May 06, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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