THE RMG workers, who blocked Dhaka-Aricha highway in Savar protesting the death of their fellow worker on Saturday, withdrew the agitation following the garment authorities’ assurance of providing Tk 8 lakh as compassion. Based on the assurance, the agitating workers withdrew their protest around 8:30 pm, reported a local daily.
Earlier, around 2000 workers of the H R Textile Mills Limited blocked the highway in Ulail area around 5:00 pm protesting the death of one Rashedul Islam, 25, a worker of the factory, hailing from Kurigram, as per the report. According to fellow workers, Rashedul felt very sick while he was on duty and sought leave from the garment authorities but denied permission.
As his condition deteriorated, the factory authorities took Rashedul to Enam Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead around 2:30 pm. Hearing the news, the workers took to the street and started ransacking vehicles of the factory. They also asked the authority of the garment factory to pay Tk 10 lakh to the victim’s family members as compensation.
The RMG owners should give training to the supervisors who control the factories to ensure that they don’t think of the workers as mere slaves chained to their institutions. While we have noble efforts by some notable RMG businessmen who even provide their workers with wards to keep their babies the vast majority of RMG owners don’t think of their workers as anything except facilitators of production.
Workplace accidents in 2017 claimed 1,242 lives and injured 371 in Bangladesh, according to a report on casualties at workplaces by Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE). In 2016, 699 workers died in the workplace and 703 were injured. The number of the casualties almost doubled from 2015. In 2015, the number of deaths was 745, in 2014 it was 1,288 and in 2013 it was 7,650, including the victims of the Rana Plaza building collapse.
The conditions of the workers have been improved but much more needs to be done. Our problem is for attracting the buyers we have to show we are the cheapest. There must be a way to improve our position of negotiation with buyers.
