No stat on workplace deaths, injuries

Although workplace fatalities and injuries are prevalent in Bangladesh, the country lacks official statistics on the crucial issue, said a top official of International Labour Organization in an international conference yesterday.

Workplace safety is a right of every worker and employee, but it is also a matter of national commitment, said Gagan Rajbhandari, deputy director of ILO, Bangladesh. Citing reports of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, an NGO, Rajbhandari said 5,919 people died and 14, 400 suffered injuries due to workplace accidents between 2002 and 2012.

The figure for occupational deaths is the largest in the construction sector, said Dr Knut Ringen, vice president of International Social Security Association (ISSA), US.

He added that Bangladesh is only behind India and China in regard to workplace fatality and injury.

Germany-based ISSA, Harvard School of Public Health, Collegium Ramazzini and Dhaka Community Hospital Trust (DCHT) jointly organised the three-day conference on "Environment and Occupational Safety and Health in Bangladesh" in BIAM Auditorium.

Two colossal tragedies in the readymade garments industry -- Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions fire -- in recent years led to a widespread international scrutiny into workplace safety and occupational hazard in Bangladesh, speakers said.   

"Ensuring workplace safety is not a cost but an investment that pays off," said ruling party lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury.       

One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN is dedicated to decent and safe work place, and it is crucial to monitor  whether the government is playing its role in achieving the goal, said Chowdhury, also president of Inter-Parliamentary Union.