The country is yet to set a compensation standard for the dead and survivors of any industrial accident even five years after Rana Plaza collapse, the worst garment factory disaster in Bangladesh, participants at a dialogue said on Tuesday.
Rana Plaza, a five-storey commercial building complex at Savar upazila, caved in on April 24, 2013, leaving 1,134, mostly ready-made garment (RMG) workers, dead and over 2,800 injured, many of them critically.
Rana Plaza survivors received compensations but the process of paying reparations was done on ad-hoc basis, they opined demanding for establishing a national compensation standard in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 121.
The dialogue was also informed that some 48.7 per cent of the surveyed Rana Plaza survivors are still remaining unemployed because of their physical and mental weaknesses. Majority of them have not worked in the last six months.
Action Aid Bangladesh (AAB) organised the dialogue on 'Advancing Decent Work Agenda: Departure from Rana Plaza', held in the capital. Its country director Farah Kabir presided over the dialogue where the findings of its follow-up survey were disclosed.
Chhabi Biswas, member of parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of labour and employment, attended the programme as the chief guest. Ali Ahmed Khan, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, was present, among others.
AAB has developed a database of some 1,400 survivors of the deadliest RMG factory disaster of the country in 2013 and out of them, 200 have been interviewed through telephone to identify the progress made in their rehabilitation and reintegration and also the surviving victims' physical and psychological well being and economic condition.
Among the survivors who are currently employed, 21.6 per cent have returned to garment factories while equal percentage of survivors have been working as day labourers, according to the findings.
About 12 per cent of the surveyed respondents' physical condition has been getting worse since the incident and the victims have reported headache, pain in hands and legs, back pain as some of the major problems during the interview.
Some 70.5 per cent reported that they are more or less stable while 17.5 per cent are completely stable, it found.
A majority (60.6 per cent) of the survivors' average monthly household income is Tk 5,001 to Tk 10,000 while 4.5 per cent victims' monthly household income is below Tk 5,000, lower than the minimum monthly wage of an entry level garment worker.
The Rana Plaza survivors have received various assistances and no standard has so far been set in paying the compensation while there is no legal structure for the same, said Rajshahi University professor Jakir Hossain while presenting his keynote on 'Bangladesh's Industrial Relations after Rana Plaza: Whither Reforms and What Has Changed.'
Many initiatives have been taken by government and foreign buyers mainly for workplace safety, he mentioned, adding there is little to ensure and protect the rights of workers, victims of industrial accidents and their social wellbeing.
Dhaka University's Economics Department professor M M Akash said a committee that was formed directed by the high court recommended Tk 1.5 million as compensation for the families of workers who die in any industrial accident.
"If the court has given a verdict on the rate proposed by the committee, it would be fixed," he said adding that owners are not interested in setting the issue through court citing that law has fixed Tk 0.1 million as compensation.
About the safety reforms so far taken place in the RMG sector, he said there is no set standard on decent wage in the country.
The per capita income is Tk 10,000 and the minimum monthly wage of a garment worker is half of the amount-Tk 5,3000, he mentioned, suggesting decent wage should be Tk 22,000 and the workers are not demanding the amount rather they demand for Tk 16,000.
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies executive director Sultan Uddin Ahmed opined that no sustainable change is possible only increasing the number of trade union.
He called for a coordinated approach to reach the benefit of changes already taken placed to all.
ILO Banlgadesh officer in charge Anne-Laure Henry-Gréard said the compensation given to the Rana Plaza building collapse survivors was an ad-hoc process and stressed the need for introducing the injury insurance scheme for betterment of the workers.
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