RMG workers’ vaccination stressed

Expressing deep concern over keeping garment factories open during hard lockdown, Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sanghati (BGSS) exhorted the authorities concerned to ensure immediate vaccination of workers.
A seven-day countrywide hard lockdown begins today (Thursday) in a bid to contain the transmission of coronavirus.
The government and factory owners must take liability for infection of any worker for factory operations during the period without ensuring their safety, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The government has taken two policies in the country. On the one hand, agencies like military will be deployed to keep people indoors, but on the other, factories will remain open."
As banking activities and kitchen market would be operational, BGSS chief and general secretary Taslima Akhter and Julhasnayeen Babu said, adding that infection would increase in such a situation.
It would be disastrous for the country if workers of the garment sector, which creates an estimated 4.0-million jobs, are infected, they warned.
The BGSS leaders demanded immediate vaccination of RMG workers considering them as front-liners and recognised the need for giving them special incentive and recognition.
They also called for global buyers to help ensure clothing workers' inoculation.
Citing a parliamentary budget discussion about vaccination, the statement said the lives of garment workers, who are running the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic, seemed unimportant.
They also demanded sufficient testing measures, field hospitals in labour-intensive zones, safe transportation and safety of workers.

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