U-LABUNIVERSITY OF LIBERAL ARTSBANCLADESH

UNIVERSITY OF LIBERAL ARTS BANGLADESH

Worker Safety in Bangladesh: Looking Beyond GarmentsBy Afsana Tazreen and Daniel M. Sabet

April 2013

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Purpose of the reportThe recent fire at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory has brought the perennial challenge of worker safetyinto the spotlight once again. Given the constant pressure to lower costs and the dearth of meaningfulgovernment oversight, businesses are continually tempted to reduce costs at the price of worker safety.Worker deaths are not new in Bangladesh, and while they have led to recriminations and some importantchanges, fires and other tragic accidents continue. The question today is whether the scope of the Tazreentragedy was significant enough to lead to more meaningful changes in the garment sector and the broadereconomy. This report explores the issue of worker safety in the garment industry in the wake of the Tazreenfire, but it also seeks to expand the discussion, highlighting worker safety concerns in the ship breaking,leather; and construction industries.

The blaze that killed over 100 workersOn the night of 24 November2OL2, a fire broke out in Tazreen Fashions, an eight-storygarmentfactory in theAshulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka. Of the estimated 1,150 people working that night to fillorders for various international brands, LL3 were killed and another 200 wounded. The fire reportedlyoriginated from an electrical malfunction on the ground floor, where bales of yarn and fabric were improperlystored. While many workers managed to escape to an adjacent building, others were burned or suffocated todeath. On the worst affected third floor sewing unit, sixty-nine bodies were recovered.

Worker safety in the RMG lndustryFires have been a persistent problem in the country's readymade garment (RMG) industry for over a decade.Bangladesh has over 4,500 RMG factories, which employ more than four million workers and account forUSS19 billion in exports.l The coun-try's comparative advantage is low costs - the minimum wage for workersis a mere Tk3,000 (S37) per month.2 As keeping costs low has been one of the keys to the sector's success inBangladesh, there are strong disincentives to make necessary investments in worker safety. Whileimprovements have been made over the years, the safety record of the Bangladesh RMG industry remainspoor' There is some disagreement about the number of worker deaths in the industry. According to theBangladesh lnstitute of Labour Studies, 43L workers died in L4 major fire incidents between j.990 and ZOI2.3However, according'to Bangladesh Fire Department,4L4 garment workers were killed in 213 factory firesbetween 2006 and 2009 alone.a

Out of complianceAccording to Section 62 of the 2006 Bangladesh Labour Law, the following standards are required for all RMG factories: s

o At least one alternative exit with a stair connecting all the floors of the factory building.o No exit can be locked or fastened during working hours.o An effective and clearly audible means to warn of fires.o Cleared passages providing access to each escape route.o A fire drill at least once a year in each factory where more than fifty workers are employed.

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Several of these and other requirements were violated at Tazreen Fashions:

o The fire originated in the warehouse, which was improperly located on the ground floor beside thegenerators. lf the fabric had been stored in an enclosed, fireproof room, as required by law, the fire couldhave been contained. lnstead it not only spread but blocked the ground floor exit.

o The factory did not have any emergency fire exits that would have allowed workers to circumvent theground floor fire.6

o The factory failed to annually renew its fire certificate.o The factory lacked a sprinkler system or an outdoor fire escape.o Despite only having permission for a three-story building, the owners had added five extra floors to the

building illegally.o Some fire extinguishers did not functioh, and, despite fire drills, workers were not properly trained in fire

extinguisher use or fire evacuation procedures.T

Perhaps more disturbing than these failings, was the response of the supervisors on the day of the fire. The

supervisors dismissed the fire alarm and told the workers to continue working. The fire took around 30

minutes to spread, while it should have taken only five to seven minutes for the workers to evacuate thefactory. ln addition to demonstrating Tazreen's negligence, such extreme violations raise serious questions

about Bangladesh's fire, building, and occupational health and safety regulators.

Aftermath: The "Post Tazreen Scenario"As a consequence of the fire, the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the lnternational LabourOrganization convened a tripartite meeting of government, employers, and workers on fire safety in theworkplace on 1-5 January 2013.8 Subsequently, the ministry formally adopted anaction plan on March24outlining needed legislative and policy challenges.e

While these represent very positive steps, there are reasons to be concerned. This would not be the first timethat promises to improve worker safety have fallen short. A 2001 fire that killed 24 people was expected tohave a similar turning point. At that time, the High Court directed the government to set up a committee tooversee the safety of garment workers, a directive which was never implemented.l0 Despite all the attentiongarnered by the Tazreen blaze, just two months into the incident, seven workers died in another factory fireat Smart Garment Ltd. The emergency exit of the building was locked, and those who died were trampledwhile trying to rush down the only stairway. Since the Tazreen fire, another 28 factory fires have beenreported, injuring at least 59L workers.11

Shifting the focus to other industries:lf safety measures are inadequate in the RMG industry, one cannot help but wonder about the situation inindustries that do not garner the international spotlight like the RMG sector. According to the Safety andRights Society (SRS), which monitors news accounts of worker deaths, 388 workers were killed inoccupational accidents in 2011 and 490 in 2012. While the Bangladesh lnstitute of Labour Studies (BILS)

estimates the numbgr to be far lower, the SRS estimation is probably fairly conservative as not all such deathsare reported in the media. ln fact, the ILO contends that 11,000 workers die each year in work-relatedaccidents in Bangladesh.12 ln the section that follows, weconsider three prominent industries-- ship breaking,leather and construction-- with a high rate of occupational injuries and deaths.

The ship breaking industryEach year hundreds of decommissioned ships are brought to the beaches of the Bay of Bengal, where shipbreakers, including many minors,tt use blowtorches and sledge hammers to tear the great ships apart formonthly salaries that range from Tk3,000 to 5,000 (US$37-62).14 Most of the defunct ships contain a varietyof hazardous materials, including asbestos, PCBs, ozone depleting substances, lead, heavy metals, liquidwastes, and acidic wastes, all of which pose a major threat to the environment and worker health andsafety.ls

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ln addition to chemical exposure, workers operate without protective gear and use unsafe and untestedcranes, lifting machinery, and ropes and chains recovered from the very ships being dismantled.16 During theyears 2009-20LL, 3L laborers were reportedly killed in accidents, and the actual number may be much

higher.17 The main causes of accidents include falling steel beams and plates, gas flames and explosions,

suffocation and inhalation of poisonous gases. In a recent survey of 2'J,6 workers, respondents reported thatsevere cuts and broken bones were common and that burns and even loss of limbs occurred.ls

Although the ILO issued guidelines in 2004 for ship breaking in Asian countries, and although Bangladeshi

workers are supposed to be protected under the 2006 Labour Law Act, enforcement and compliance are

almost nonexistent.tt ln 2009, the Supreme Court placed a ban on all ship breaking due to the hazardous

materials onboard. The industry seemed likely to collapse until the government loosened regulations and theSupreme Court placed a stay on its decision. A final judgment is still pending, but the industry has to date

failed to take steps to improve worker safety.

The leather industry:Over the last ten years, leather exports have grown by an average of Tk 328 crore (USS41- million) per year.'o

Unfortunately, according to a Human Rights Watch study, ninety percent of workers employed in the 150

tanneries located in the Hazaribagh section of Dhaka face occupational hazards ranging from exposure totanning chemicals to potential accidents causing limb amputations.2l Workers soak raw hides in toxicchemicals such as chromium, sulphur and manganese, cut the hides with razor blades and handle corrosive

substances with bare hands in stuffy, dark rooms. During the process they rarely wear any protective

clothing, like boots, gloves, or masks.

The Bangladesh Government has consistently failed to enforce labor or environmental laws in Hazaribagh, and ithas failed to act on High Court orders to clean up the tanneries and move them out of Dhaka to a safer location

where the industry's effluent can be properly treated. ln theory, worker safety issues should also be improved in a

new location; however, this is far from guaranteed. While international buyers (under pressure from consumers)

have played a role in promoting worker safety in the RMG industry and the leather goods manufacturing industry,

that pressure has not been extended further down the supply chain to the tanning process.

The construction' [ndustrySection 7 of the Bangladesh National Building Code (2006) has a section dedicated to safety measures forworkers and clearly states that workers should wear helmets and safety harnesses and that all temporarystairs, ladders, and scaffolds should be, "substantially constructed so as not to create any unsafe situation forthe workmen using them or the workmen and general public passing under, on or near them". "Howeve4even casual observation would reveal that these provisions are frequently if not always violated. Accordingto Safety and Rights Society (SRS)there were 149 deaths in the con struction industry in2O12, L83 deaths in2O'J.1,73 in 2010,56 in 2009 and 100 deaths in 2008.

However, the actual figures are suspected to be much higher. The Dhaka Medical College morgue and itsemergency departrn.ent alone report receiving one or two such victims of construction site accidents everyday.23 Unlike the export-oriented industries, the construction industry does not receive any pressure forreforms from the foreign b\yers (and their consumers). Perhaps as a result, there is no enforcement body toensure that worker safety legislation is enforced. ln 2010, the High Court asked the government to establisha National Building Code Enforcement Authority, but no such authority has been created, leaving workersafety rules entirely unenforced.

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ln summary: Keeping costs low and protecting workersBangladesh's comparative advantage continues to be its cheap labor; and competitive pressures incentivizebusinesses to cut costs as much as possible - even at the price of worker safety. Nonetheless, cheap labordoes not or should not imply devaluation of life itself. Moreover, it is worth asking at which point is suchshort term cost cutting contrary to long term financial gain. Tazreen Fashion's negligence certainly did nothelp its bottom line. Providing safety training, purchasing safety gear (e.g. hard hats and gloves), andensuring the use of safety harnesses do not require major investments. Small investments in worker safetywould not only prevent tragedies such as the Tazreen fire, but they could lead to a more dedicated,productive, and efficient workforce.

lJim Yardley, Julfikar Ali Manik and Steven Greenhouse. 2012. "Horrific Fire Revealed a Gap in Safety for Global Brands". New York

Times: Dec 6.2Blcirn

Claeson. 2012. Deadly Secrets. WashingtonDC: lnternational Labour Rights Forum.3Moinul

Haque. 2013. "Over 700 Dead in 22years". New Age: March 8.alocked

doors and lost lives"The Star. Vol. 9(49):24 December, 2010.TSEBA Lirit"d. "Working Paper on Salient Features of the Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 Related to RMG Sector."Dhaka: Bangladesh-German Development Cooperation.6The o*ne, was not aware of the necessity of emergency exits, which illustrates how far removed some factory owners are fromissues of worker safety. Julhas Alam. 20L2. "Bangladesh Factory Boss !Didn't Know Fire Exits Needed'." Thelrrawaddy: Nov 30.7

Yardley."Horrific Fire."tlLO.

2013."Tripartite Meeting on Fire Safety in the Workplace in Bangladesh." lnternational Labour Organization: January 15.tlLO.

2013."Fire Safety - Tripartite Partners Adopt National Tripartite Plan of Action on Fire Safety for the Ready-Made Garment Sectorln Bangladesh." lnternational Labour Organization: March 25.10Arun

Devnath and Ketaki Gokhale. 2012. "Death in Panic shows Fear of Fire for Bangladeshi Workers." Washington Post: Dec L2l1Martle

Theuws, Marieette van Huijstee, Pauline Overeem, Jos van Seters, and Tessel Pauli. 2013. Fatal Fashion. Amsterdam: CleanClothes Campaign and Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.t'S.f"ty

and health at Work". lnternational Labour organization. http://www.ilo .org/dhaka/Areasofwork/safety-and-health-at-work/la ng-en/index. htmttYPSA.

2012. "Ship Breaking in Bangladesh" Young Power in Social Action.http://www.shipbreakingbd.info/toMd.

M. Maruf Hossain and Mohammad Mahmudul lslam. 2006. "Ship breaking activities and its impact on the coastal zone ofChittagong, Bangladesh: Towards Sustainable Management."Chittagong: Young Power in Social Action.lssyeda

Rizwana Hasan. 2012. "Ship Breaking: Environmental and Human Disaster along the Coast". Forum,The Daily Star: Junett

Ibid.

" Ibid.ttM. Sh.h.d.t Hossain, Sayedur R. Chowdhury, S. M. Abdul Jabbar, S.M. Saifullah, and M. Ataur Rahman. 2008. "Occupational HealthHazards of Ship Scrapping Workers at Chittagong Coastal Zone, Bangladesh". Chiang Mai Journal of ScienceVol. 35(2): 370-381t'YPsA.

"Ship Breaking in Bangladesh."

'oHrtrn Rights Watch. 2Ot2.Toxictanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh's Hazaribagh Leather. Human Rights Watch

"rbid."Volrr" 1: Main Text- Di:partment of Environment. 2010. May.

"M R.hr.n. 2011. "Construction Sites go Unwatched." The Daily Star: April 3.

The Center for Enterprise Society (CES) seeks to advance understanding of the opportunities and challenges to businessand societal development in Bangladesh through objective, academic study. For more information, to access to ourblog, to find previous analyses in this series, and for other resources, please visit: http://www.ulab.edu.bd/CES/center-for-enterprise-a nd-society/