Staff Reporter :Garment workers in Bangladesh are facing poor working condition and ill-treatment at their work places, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday. Labour law is not implemented in a significant way and garments workers have no right form union in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Bangladesh. The workers are facing verbal abuse and physical assaults (sometimes of sexual nature), they are forced to work overtime and deprived of wages, while the female workers are deprived of their maternity leaves and other facilities, the report said. The US based rights organization HRW prepared the 78-page report titled ‘Whoever Raises Their Head, Suffers the Most: Workers’ Rights in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories”. It published the report at a news conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU). The report is based on interviews with more than 160 workers from 24 factories. Bangladesh garment workers are badly treated in the factories, even sometimes they are beaten off by the managers or the owners of the factories, but they cannot protest as the management sometimes hired local goons to silence them, Deputy Director Asia of HRW Phil Robertson said. “Some union leaders told HRW that they continue to be targeted by the factory management and they are at risk to lose their jobs. In some factories, workers who tried to form union have already been dismissed for their activities,” he said. A female worker of a Gazipur garment factory was brutally beaten with rods when she was pregnant, Robertson said, she was called to the Chaorman’s room and physically tortured there. “In many factories they are not paid in time. Those who wanted to raise their voce against the irregularities or ill-treatment, they have to face the wrath of the factory owners or management,” he said. “Factory managers compelled the reluctant workers to work in the Rana Place despite major cracks in the complex’s walls on April 24, 2013, causing the death of more than 1,100 workers. In Tazreen factory, manager refused to let the workers escape when the fire broke out, even after the alarms went off on November 24, 2012. At least 112 garment workers lost lives in that incident,” Robertson said.If Bangladesh wants to avoid another Rana Plaza disaster, it needs to effectively enforce its labour law and ensure the safety measures in the factories, he noted. HRW also called on the Bangladesh government, factory owners and western retailers to ensure workers’ right and end the unlawful targeting of labour leaders by factory owners and supervisors. Bangladesh government should carry out effective and impartial investigations into all workers’ allegations of mistreatment, including beating, threats and other abuses and prosecute the responsible persons, it suggested. Country Programme Director of Solidarity Center, Bangladesh Alonso Suzon and Babul Akhter, President of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation also spoke at the conference.
