Gaps in workers' rights go unnoticed

Occupational health and safety service in Bangladesh is still in the developmental stage. Most of these services cater only to the needs of workers in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, ignoring the other professions.

Construction workers are at highest risk of accidents on the job. Yet billboard advertising companies are one of the many businesses that ignore workers' safety. Labourers can be seen without any safety gear, such as a harness, ropes and helmets, climbing over fifty feet high. Often, a simple plank of wood is the only support used.

Neither employers nor the government is serious about upholding workers' rights. The plans which were drafted after the Rana Plaza incident are yet to be implemented. Meanwhile, illegal and dangerous practices continue with brash indifference in factories. These damages have a three-fold effect - it translates into financial losses for a corporation, undermines a family's capacity to earn their bread and butter, and negatively impacts a nation's gross productivity levels. Labourers don't know how to demand work safety because they have been made to believe that they simply do not deserve it, while well-connected corrupt employers bribe policemen and medico-legal officers to evade the grip of law.

Many other health problems are commonly encountered and under-reported, such as skin conditions of workers in the carpet weaving industry and chemical factories, lung diseases in miners, silicosis in stone crushing sites, etc. The general well-being of employees, as well as their regular health and fitness checkups, mental health and performance evaluations are basic rights that should be offered by all employers.

Zubair Khaled Huq

By email