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Worker Safety in Bangladesh: Looking Beyond Garments

By Afsana Tazreen and Daniel M. Sabet
April 2013

Current Events Analysis Series

Purpose of the report
The recent fire at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory has brought the perennial challenge of worker
safety into the spotlight once again. Given the constant pressure to lower costs and the dearth of
meaningful government 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 important changes, fires and other tragic accidents continue. The question today is whether the
scope of the Tazreen tragedy was significant enough to lead to more meaningful changes in the garment
sector and the broader economy. This report explores the issue of worker safety in the garment industry
in the wake of the Tazreen fire, 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 workers
On the night of 24 November 2012, a fire broke out in Tazreen Fashions, an eight-story garment factory in
the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka. Of the estimated 1,150 people working that
night to fill orders for various international brands, 113 were killed and another 200 wounded. The fire
reportedly originated from an electrical malfunction on the ground floor, where bales of yarn and fabric
were improperly stored. While many workers managed to escape to an adjacent building, others were
burned or suffocated to death. On the worst affected third floor sewing unit, sixty-nine bodies were
recovered.

Worker safety in the RMG Industry
Fires have been a persistent problem in the countrys readymade garment (RMG) industry for over a
decade. Bangladesh has over 4,500 RMG factories, which employ more than four million workers and
account for US$19 billion in exports.
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The countrys comparative advantage is low costs the minimum
wage for workers is a mere Tk3,000 ($37) per month.
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As keeping costs low has been one of the keys to
the sectors success in Bangladesh, there are strong disincentives to make necessary investments in
worker safety. While improvements have been made over the years, the safety record of the Bangladesh
RMG industry remains poor. There is some disagreement about the number of worker deaths in the
industry. According to the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, 431 workers died in 14 major fire
incidents between 1990 and 2012.
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However, according to Bangladesh Fire Department, 414 garment
workers were killed in 213 factory fires between 2006 and 2009 alone.
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Out of compliance
According to Section 62 of the 2006 Bangladesh Labour Law, the following standards are required for all
RMG factories:
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At least one alternative exit with a stair connecting all the floors of the factory building.
No exit can be locked or fastened during working hours.
An effective and clearly audible means to warn of fires.
Cleared passages providing access to each escape route.


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A fire drill at least once a year in each factory where more than fifty workers are employed.

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

The fire originated in the warehouse, which was improperly located on the ground floor beside
the generators. If the fabric had been stored in an enclosed, fireproof room, as required by law,
the fire could have been contained. Instead it not only spread but blocked the ground floor exit.
The factory did not have any emergency fire exits that would have allowed workers to
circumvent the ground floor fire.
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The factory failed to annually renew its fire certificate.
The factory lacked a sprinkler system or an outdoor fire escape.
Despite only having permission for a three-story building, the owners had added five extra floors
to the building illegally.
Some fire extinguishers did not function, and, despite fire drills, workers were not properly
trained in fire extinguisher use or fire evacuation procedures.
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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
the factory. In addition to demonstrating Tazreens negligence, such extreme violations raise serious
questions about Bangladeshs 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 International Labour
Organization convened a tripartite meeting of government, employers, and workers on fire safety in the
workplace on 15 January 2013.
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The parties committed to developing an action plan on fire safety and
recommitted themselves to fully abide by all relevant laws, regulations and procedures aimed at ensuring
fire safety at the work place. While these represent very positive steps, the above mentioned action plan
is yet to be implemented.

There are reasons to be concerned about. This would not be the first time that promises to improve
worker safety have fallen short. A 2001 fire that killed 24 people was expected to have a similar turning
point. At that time, the High Court directed the government to set up a committee to oversee the safety
of garment workers, a directive which was never implemented.
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Despite all the attention garnered by
the Tazreen blaze, just two months into the incident, seven workers died in another factory fire at Smart
Garment Ltd. The emergency exit of the building was locked, and those who died were trampled while
trying to rush down the only stairway. Since the Tazreen fire, another 28 factory fires have been
reported, injuring at least 591 workers.
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Shifting the focus to other industries:
If safety measures are inadequate in the RMG industry, one cannot help but wonder about the
situation in industries that do not garner the international spotlight like the RMG sector. According
to the Safety and Rights Society (SRS), which monitors news accounts of worker deaths, 388 workers
were killed in occupational accidents in 2011 and 490 in 2012. While the Bangladesh Institute of
Labour Studies (BILS) estimates the number to be far lower, the SRS estimation is probably fairly
conservative as not all such deaths are reported in the media. In fact, the ILO contends that 11,000
workers die each year in work-related accidents in Bangladesh.
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In the section that follows, we
consider three prominent industries-- ship breaking, leather and construction-- with a high rate of
occupational injuries and deaths.




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The ship breaking industry
Each year hundreds of decommissioned ships are brought to the beaches of the Bay of Bengal, where
ship breakers, including many minors,
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use blowtorches and sledge hammers to tear the great ships
apart for monthly salaries that range from Tk3,000 to 5,000 (US$37-62).
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Most of the defunct ships
contain a variety of hazardous materials, including asbestos, PCBs, ozone depleting substances, lead,
heavy metals, liquid wastes, and acidic wastes, all of which pose a major threat to the environment and
worker health and safety.
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In addition to chemical exposure, workers operate without protective gear and use unsafe and untested
cranes, lifting machinery, and ropes and chains recovered from the very ships being dismantled.
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During
the years 2009-2011, 31 laborers were reportedly killed in accidents, and the actual number may be
much higher.
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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 216 workers, respondents
reported that severe cuts and broken bones were common and that burns and even loss of limbs
occurred.
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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.
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In 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
the Supreme 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 (US$41 million) per
year.
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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 to tanning chemicals to potential accidents causing limb amputations.
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Workers soak raw
hides in toxic chemicals 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 it has failed to act on High Court orders to clean up the tanneries and move them out of
Dhaka to a safer location where the industrys effluent can be properly treated. In 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 industry
Section 7 of the Bangladesh National Building Code (2006) has a section dedicated to safety measures for
workers and clearly states that workers should wear helmets and safety harnesses and that all temporary
stairs, ladders, and scaffolds should be, substantially constructed so as not to create any unsafe situation
for the workmen using them or the workmen and general public passing under, on or near them.
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However, even casual observation would reveal that these provisions are frequently if not always
violated. According to Safety and Rights Society (SRS) there were 149 deaths in the construction industry
in 2012, 183 deaths in 2011, 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 its
emergency department alone report receiving one or two such victims of construction site accidents
every day.
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Unlike the export-oriented industries, the construction industry does not receive any
pressure for reforms from the foreign buyers (and their consumers). Perhaps as a result, there is no

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enforcement body to ensure that worker safety legislation is enforced. In 2010, the High Court asked the
government to establish a National Building Code Enforcement Authority, but no such authority has been
created, leaving worker safety rules entirely unenforced.

In summary: Keeping costs low and protecting workers
Bangladeshs comparative advantage continues to be its cheap labor, and competitive pressures
incentivize businesses to cut costs as much as possible even at the price of worker safety. Nonetheless,
cheap labor does not or should not imply devaluation of life itself. Moreover, it is worth asking at which
point is such short term cost cutting contrary to long term financial gain. Tazreen Fashions negligence
certainly did not help its bottom line. Providing safety training, purchasing safety gear (e.g. hard hats and
gloves), and ensuring the use of safety harnesses do not require major investments. Small investments in
worker safety would not only prevent tragedies such as the Tazreen fire, but they could lead to a more
dedicated, productive, and efficient workforce.


1
Jim Yardley, Julfikar Ali Manik and Steven Greenhouse. 2012. Horrific Fire Revealed a Gap in Safety for Global Brands.
New York Times: Dec 6.
2
Bjrn Claeson. 2012. Deadly Secrets. Washington DC: International Labour Rights Forum.
3
Moinul Haque. 2013. Over 700 Dead in 22 years. New Age: March 8.
4
Locked doors and lost lives. The Star. Vol. 9(49): 24 December, 2010.
5
SEBA Limited. Working Paper on Salient Features of the Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 Related to RMG Sector. Dhaka:
Bangladesh-German Development Cooperation.
6
The owner was not aware of the necessity of emergency exits, which illustrates how far removed some factory owners
are from issues of worker safety. Julhas Alam. 2012. Bangladesh Factory Boss Didnt Know Fire Exits Needed. The
Irrawaddy: Nov 30.
7
Yardley. Horrific Fire.
8
ILO. 2013.Tripartite Meeting on Fire Safety in the Workplace in Bangladesh. International Labour Organization: January
15.
9
Arun Devnath and Ketaki Gokhale. 2012. Death in Panic shows Fear of Fire for Bangladeshi Workers. Washington Post:
Dec 12
10
Martje Theuws, Marieette van Huijstee, Pauline Overeem, Jos van Seters, and Tessel Pauli. 2013. Fatal Fashion.
Amsterdam: Clean Clothes Campaign and Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.
11
Safety and health at Work. International Labour Organization. http://www.ilo.org/dhaka/Areasofwork/safety-and-
health-at-work/lang--en/index.htm
12
YPSA. 2012. Ship Breaking in Bangladesh Young Power in Social Action. http://www.shipbreakingbd.info/
13
Md. M. Maruf Hossain and Mohammad Mahmudul Islam. 2006. Ship breaking activities and its impact on the coastal
zone of Chittagong, Bangladesh: Towards Sustainable Management. Chittagong: Young Power in Social Action.
14
Syeda Rizwana Hasan. 2012. Ship Breaking: Environmental and Human Disaster along the Coast. Forum,The Daily Star:
June
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
M. Shahadat Hossain, Sayedur R. Chowdhury, S. M. Abdul Jabbar, S.M. Saifullah, and M. Ataur Rahman. 2008.
Occupational Health Hazards of Ship Scrapping Workers at Chittagong Coastal Zone, Bangladesh. Chiang Mai Journal of
Science. Vol. 35(2): 370-381
18
YPSA. Ship Breaking in Bangladesh.
19
Human Rights Watch. 2012. Toxic tanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh's Hazaribagh Leather. Human
Rights Watch
20
Ibid.
21
Volume 1: Main Text- Department of Environment. 2010. May.
22
M Rahman. 2011. Construction Sites go Unwatched. The Daily Star: April 3.




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business and societal development in Bangladesh through objective, academic study. For more information,
to access to our blog, to find previous analyses in this series, and for other resources, please visit:
http://www.ulab.edu.bd/CES/center-for-enterprise-and-society/