Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The collapse of an eight-story factory building near the capital Dhaka shows the urgent need to improve the Bangladesh’s protections for worker health and safety, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
“Reforms should include a drastic overhaul of the government’s system of labour inspections and an end to government efforts to thwart the right of workers to unionize,” the international rights watchdog said.
The building had been evacuated the previous day when large cracks had appeared in the walls. Numerous workers in the building were reluctant to enter the premises on the morning before the collapse, but did so after being told the building was safe or after alleged threats from company officials, the HRW said.
More than 300 people, mainly female workers, were killed and more than 1,000 were injured when the eight-storey RanaPlaza factory building in Savar, outside the capital Dhaka, collapsed on Wednesday last.
“Given the long record of worker deaths in factories, this tragedy was sadly predictable,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said. “The government, local factory owners, and the international garment industry pay workers among the world’s lowest wages, but didn’t have the decency to ensure safe conditions for the people who put clothes on the backs of people all over the world.”
The Rana building collapse is the latest in a long list of factory building tragedies in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said. In April 2005, 73 garment workers died in a factory collapse in Savar.
In February 2006, 18 workers were killed in a garment factory collapse in Dhaka. In June 2010, 25 people were killed in a building collapse in Dhaka. In November 2012, more than 100 workers died in a fire at a factory in Dhaka.
Bangladesh has notoriously poor workplace safety inspection mechanisms, the HRW said, adding that the Ministry of Labour’s Inspection Department, responsible for monitoring employers’ adherence to Bangladesh’s Labour Act, is chronically under-resourced.
The rights watchdog also said international companies that purchase clothes and other products from Bangladeshi factories have a responsibility to ensure that worker safety is maintained throughout their supply chains, Human Rights Watch said.
The Rana Plaza factories in the building were supplying a number of global clothing retailers, it noted.
The international rights watchdog also called on all companies to ensure that the garments sourced in Bangladesh are manufactured in factories in full compliance with international standards and Bangladeshi labor law, through audits performed by a credible third party, as well as site visits to source factories.
“Global companies and consumers profit from cheap labor in Bangladesh, but do little to demand the most basic and humane conditions for those who toil on their behalf,” Adams said. “It is time for companies to say that they will take no clothes from companies that do not meet minimum standards. Ignorance and cost can no longer be an excuse for some of the biggest companies in the world."
BBN/SSR/AD-26Apr13-7:07 pm (BST)