Safety of workers must be a priority
Friday, 29 October 2010
Safety of workers at their jobs cannot be allowed to remain optional in any civilized country. The shocking numbers of casualties in Bangladesh should get the authorities concerned moving in earnest to make employers follow safety guidelines in all sectors. Successive governments seem to have done little save enacting laws. There is virtually no monitoring to determine whether or not fool-proof safety measures have been installed or the minimum protection against occupational hazards -- such as masks against dust and lint, gloves and boots against corrosive chemicals -- for the workers in the country's mills and factories. A decade ago, steel mill workers were reportedly found protecting themselves against the hellish heat with rubber sheets made from recycled tyres!
The Centre for Corporate Accountability Bangladesh, together with a number of other non-government organizations, claimed to have conducted a study a couple of years ago which revealed that some 1,700 workers were killed and another 2000 were injured in accidents at work in 2008 alone. These were the numbers officially recorded. The figures quoted by one newspaper, however, showed that the number of annual casualties was much larger. Citing an International Labour Office document year-marked 2000, it reported that ILO estimated as many as 11,700 worker deaths each year in Bangladesh. In 2005, it said that another 28,600 died from occupational diseases every year and 8.9 million suffered all their lives from work-related injuries. The details have not been elaborated but there is no denying that the safety of workers in this country has not been very important so far. The situation has not turned any better in recent times.
Examples of dreadful incidents that are covered by the media, reveal again and again the general callousness of employers towards the safety of their workers in almost every 'risky' sector in Bangladesh. Consider these: two men falling to their death from their rickety perch up in a multi-storied building under construction; the bursting of a furnace in a steel mill, which killed one instantly and left 15 more badly injured. Apart from direct death-dealing incidents of fires in chemical and garment factories, horrendous accidents have been happening every other day at shipbreaking yards; there are boiler blasts elsewhere, not to forget the extreme risks that construction workers are subjected to, and the insidious 'occupational hazards' of the jute mills, the tanneries, cement, plastic, bidi, shoes, foam and assorted employment generators that contribute to the ill-health and early demise of those earning their bread from them.
The number of government inspectors available to monitor the 6000 or so boilers and furnaces in the country's sugar mills, textiles, washing plants, cement factories, hotels, hospitals and other workplaces, is ridiculously small. If the reported figure is correct, it is indeed scandalous for only about a dozen inspectors are said to exist, out of which only four are said to be assigned as boiler inspectors! And they are expected to make the rounds in the country's 15,000 factories and mills, including the garments sector!
The situation must be rectified sooner rather than later with an adequate number of trained inspectors recruited to do a reasonably good job of checking enterprises for worker safety. The employers on their part must be made to prioritize the safety of their workers, including post-accident security as per international law.
The Centre for Corporate Accountability Bangladesh, together with a number of other non-government organizations, claimed to have conducted a study a couple of years ago which revealed that some 1,700 workers were killed and another 2000 were injured in accidents at work in 2008 alone. These were the numbers officially recorded. The figures quoted by one newspaper, however, showed that the number of annual casualties was much larger. Citing an International Labour Office document year-marked 2000, it reported that ILO estimated as many as 11,700 worker deaths each year in Bangladesh. In 2005, it said that another 28,600 died from occupational diseases every year and 8.9 million suffered all their lives from work-related injuries. The details have not been elaborated but there is no denying that the safety of workers in this country has not been very important so far. The situation has not turned any better in recent times.
Examples of dreadful incidents that are covered by the media, reveal again and again the general callousness of employers towards the safety of their workers in almost every 'risky' sector in Bangladesh. Consider these: two men falling to their death from their rickety perch up in a multi-storied building under construction; the bursting of a furnace in a steel mill, which killed one instantly and left 15 more badly injured. Apart from direct death-dealing incidents of fires in chemical and garment factories, horrendous accidents have been happening every other day at shipbreaking yards; there are boiler blasts elsewhere, not to forget the extreme risks that construction workers are subjected to, and the insidious 'occupational hazards' of the jute mills, the tanneries, cement, plastic, bidi, shoes, foam and assorted employment generators that contribute to the ill-health and early demise of those earning their bread from them.
The number of government inspectors available to monitor the 6000 or so boilers and furnaces in the country's sugar mills, textiles, washing plants, cement factories, hotels, hospitals and other workplaces, is ridiculously small. If the reported figure is correct, it is indeed scandalous for only about a dozen inspectors are said to exist, out of which only four are said to be assigned as boiler inspectors! And they are expected to make the rounds in the country's 15,000 factories and mills, including the garments sector!
The situation must be rectified sooner rather than later with an adequate number of trained inspectors recruited to do a reasonably good job of checking enterprises for worker safety. The employers on their part must be made to prioritize the safety of their workers, including post-accident security as per international law.