Laws fail to protect garment workers

Six months have already passed. Still we are grieving the tragedy of the Rana Plaza collapse in Savar on April 24, 2013 that killed 1,133 workers and crippled another 1,500. About 2,438 were rescued alive with 316 missing. Many people still remain traumatised after escaping the death-knell luckily. However, proper compensation to the victims, which could alleviate their sufferings to some extent, is now a big concern of all for their betterment. But what are the present conditions of these victims and how much are they being compensated for?  As far as we know, Agriculture Minister Begum Motia Chowdhury informed a parliamentary session on July 24, 2013 that an amount of Tk 1,300 million was deposited at the Prime Minister's fund for assisting the Rana Plaza victims. But it is not clear yet what policy is being adopted for distributing the amount, how much money has already been distributed and what is the update on that fund? Although some amount has been distributed to some families, it should be made clear for creating public confidence over the government. It should not be expected to let the fund covered under the ashes. The fund should not be used arbitrarily. It should be distributed with a proper policy immediately to lessen the misery of victims and their families.
The export-oriented ready-made garment (RMG) sector has emerged as the biggest earner of foreign currency and is thus largely contributing to the economy of Bangladesh. It has seen a swift growth since the 1980s when jute and jute goods were losing their traditional markets. The RMG sector gradually injected dynamism in the export trade and thus enriched our economy. The sector now contributes significantly to the GDP and it also provides employment to a large number of Bangladeshis. It is a matter of great regret that though the national economy draws its life-blood sizeably from the RMG sector, the interest of its workers are being neglected for decades.  
However, the RMG sector in Bangladesh is to a large extent supposed to be regulated by labour laws. The laws focus on several aspects that facilitate good working conditions, better wage level, working environment, job security, work hours, sick leave, maternity leave and some other benefits. The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 has provisions covering health and hygiene, safety of the workers, welfare, working hours, child labour, leave and holidays with wages, penalties and procedures. The most important provisions, the violation of which has become a common concern recently, are health and hygiene (chapter-V), safety (chapter-VI), wages and payment (chapter-X). The Act also contained special provisions relating to health, hygiene and safety (chapter-VII) for the betterment of the employees to assure a better environment for work. The frequent incidents including building collapse, fire tragedy, and outbreak of diseases in garment industries indeed violate these provisions and make the laws useless to protect the interests of workers. After the hair-raising tragedy of Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions, the government amended the existing Labour Act. Although the amended Act makes some improvements, it still falls short of protecting workers' rights and meeting the international standards. The country has many codified laws which are enough to protect our rights but the workers are being deprived due to lack of their implementation. Then what does the watchdog bodies do and why they are for?
 Former US President Lyndon B. Johnson said: "Law is the great civilising machinery.  It liberates the desire to build and subdues the desire to destroy.  And if war can tear us apart, law can unite us - out of fear, or love or reason, or all three" (TIME September 24, 1965 page 48). Law is the greatest invention of human civilisation but due to lack of its proper implementation, we are being deprived of our rights. The onus of enforcement of laws is entrusted with law-enforcement agencies like police or RAB but we are ashamed when we see that the police are in a rough action against garment workers protesting for their rights. We rarely see any step taken against any garment owner by the government authority for exploiting cheap labour.
 The writer is a Research Assistant at the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA).            [email protected]