Outrage follows week of tragedy for Bangladeshi workers
Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:43
{mosimage}Campaigners and labour rights activists are calling for international action to improve health and safety conditions in garment factories following a series of tragedies which has hit Bangladesh’s garment industry in the last week. Hundreds of garment workers have been reported dead or injured after fires broke out at two separate factories in Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong and a third factory collapsed in the capital, Dhaka.
“Once again workers have had to pay the price for the failure of the clothing industry to address the serious health and safety problems in their workplaces,” said Samantha Maher of Labour behind the Label, a network of UK organisations campaigning to improve conditions for workers in the international garment industry. “It is time that those companies supplying our high streets take immediate action to ensure similar tragedies don’t occur in the future."
54 workers were killed and at least 60 were injured when a fire ripped through the four story KTS Textile Industries in the Kalurghat Industrial Area of Chittagong . Other sources suggest the death toll may be much higher in what is now being called the worst tragedy in the history of the Bangladesh garment industry. According to reports, 1100 people were working on the nightshift when an electrical short circuit caused flames to spread throughout the factory building. With the main entrance to the building locked, workers were forced to jump from second and third story windows to escape the flames. Those who managed to escape claimed that 800 to 900 of their fellow employees remained rapped inside the building. The factory reportedly produced for US companies Uni Hoisery, Mermaid International, ATT Enterprise and VIDA Enterprise Corp. Bangladesh authorities have apparently sealed off three other factories connected to this facility (Vintex Fashion, Cardinal Fashion and Arena Fashion), which together employed 6,000 workers, citing unplanned construction and inadequate safety measures.
Just two days later, on the morning of the 25th February, 19 people were killed and 50 injured when the Phoenix Building, a five story building in the Tejgaon district of Dhaka, collapsed following unauthorised renovations to convert its upper stories from a factory and offices to a500-bed private hospital. 150 construction workers were inside at the time of the collapse, along with an unknown number of garment workers.
Rescue operations have been continuing over the past few days in a effort to recover more workers feared trapped under the rubble. Police are still searching for the building’s owner Deen Mohammed but have so far been unable to locate him. Phoenix Garments had been exporting clothing mainly for the European market.
Later that day a further 57 workers were injured, 4 seriously, when a transformer exploded at the Imam Group of Industries (reportedly housing Moon Fashion Limited, Imam Fashion, Moon Textile, Leading Fashion and Bimon Inda garment factories). Fearing fire the workers attempted to leave via a narrow exit, resulting in a stampede.
These events are just the latest in a long line of incidents related to poor health and safety standards in the Bangladesh garment industry. Since 1990, 350 workers have been killed and 2500 injured in garment factory fires. In January 2005, 22 Bangladeshi workers in Siddirganj
were killed in a factory fire, which was also thought to have been caused by electrical short-circuiting. In April of 2005, at least 64 workers were killed in the collapse of the nine-story Spectrum Sweater factory building.
Labour Behind the Label believes local and international stakeholders must act now in order to prevent similar tragedies taking place in the future. Follow up to these latest events should include:
- Support for adequate rescue and relief efforts
- full, independent and transparent investigations and follow-up into all three incidents
- immediate structural measures to prevent future similar activities.
LBL and the Clean Clothes Campaign will continue to report on these tragedies as more information becomes available.{mospagebreak title=Bangladesh: a history of health and safety tragedies}
Bangladesh: a history of health and safety tragedies
These events are just the latest in a long line of incidents related to poor health and safety standards in the Bangladesh garment industry. Since 1990, 350 workers have been killed and 2500 injured in garment factory fires. There is a clear need for a long-term wide scale programme to address health and safety in the garment/textile sectors. The failure to implement safety measures in these sectors in Bangladesh has resulted in a conditions where the death and injury of workers has become alarmingly routine: in 2000 53 workers died at Choudury Knitwear, 24 died in 2001 at Maico Sweater, nine died in 2004 at the Misco Supermarket building, and 23 died at Shan Knitting and 64 died at the Spectrum-Shahriyar factory in 2005.
In the wake of the Spectrum-Shahriyar factory collapse in April of last year Bangladesh unions and labor rights NGOs called for structural measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future. The Clean Clothes Campaign and its and partners recommended in April 2005 that an independent international oversight committee/programme be formed to:
- Examine occupational health and safety regulations and their implementation (including emergency regulations).
- Look at providing workers with access to safe channels through which they can communicate their concerns on issues such as health and safety to their employers
It was also recommended that the committee should be given a multi-year assignment in order to ensure that follow-up takes place on any recommendations that will be made. On Sunday 26th February, the Bangladesh Parliament passed a bill outlining construction regulations, violation of which are punishable with fines and up to seven years imprisonment. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA ) convened an emergency meeting Sunday in wake of the week’s tragedies and announced they would inspect all garments factories in the country within the next month to determine which units are in compliance with safety standards and other standards set by the national and international organisations. “Inspecting factories only makes a difference when workers and their organisations are involved, otherwise auditors remain blind to the reality that workers face and are unable to draw up plans to follow-up and fix the problems in a way that’s sustainable in the long term and can make a meaningful improvements,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of the Clean Clothes Campaign International Secretariat “While some buyers have begun to take steps to systematically address conditions at their supply units, the vast majority have yet to really take sufficient concrete action to improve the dreadful situation in the workplaces where their products are made.”
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