Construction Safety in Bangladesh:Who Responsible

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in an occasion “There has been progress on many fronts in the world of work. But work-related deaths, accidents and diseases, are still major causes for concern. Decent work must also be safe work.” Each year, an estimated two million women and men die as a result of occupational accidents and work-related diseases. Across the globe, there are some 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million work-related diseases each year. So each day, an average of 6,000 people dies on work-related accidents or diseases.

As a major employment generator in many parts of the world, construction is a sector associated with a proportionately high number of job-related accidents and diseases. Despite mechanization, the industry is still largely labour-intensive, while working environments are frequently changing and involve many different parties. The industry also has a long tradition of employing migrant farm labour from lower-wage economies and much employment is precarious and short-term. According to ILO estimates, each year there are at least 60,000 fatal accidents on construction sites around the world. This is one fatal accident at every ten minutes. In comparison to global data, it is not necessary to explain the situation of occupational accidents in Bangladesh. From a source of NGO named ‘Safety and Rights Society’ working with workplace accidents in our country said a total 142 workers died at construction sites were reported in different Newspapers in 2010. Now the question arises – who will responsible for that? You as a Project Manager, your employer, Contractor, Sub-Contractor, Safety Committee, Government Agencies, Law enforcer, Political Leaders- None of them.

In an attempt to improve the situation before five years the government brought in laws about construction safety standards as “Bangladesh National Building Code was enacted in 2006 and it requires that developers should ensure the safety of the workers by doing proper scaffolding giving proper harnesses and all other safety measures so that workers feel safe when they are doing construction work.” Yet looking around the building sites in Dhaka, the safety of workers seem to be given a low priority.

The Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) represents construction developers. One of the members of its executive committee said “In our sector we are continuously giving messages for our members to upgrade theirs sites.” He also blames accidents on the workforce as he said “Actually the workers come to our sites, usually they are unskilled, when they come our site, we used to train them, train them in the sense that is usually on the job training, to use helmets on the construction sites, then to put on gum boots the use of safety nets, but what we found these workers who actually before coming to our site always were barefooted, or just putting on simple tee-shirts, and so they are not familiar with keeping helmets on their head so we’re are trying to push them to use these kind of things, but we are facing problems.”

This is fact; many workers are informal or work in small companies. There is a widespread use of the contracting system. Workers are employed on a project basis, with no insurance against periods of unemployment or sickness, insecurity of employment and lack of social protection. In addition, most often they are under aged, their wages and conditions of work are far from decent. On the other hand in construction sector maximum Sub-Contractors (Labor) have no legal trade support documents or registration. No monitoring agency is there for keeping them healthier and safer and nothing about training support to make them skilled. Ministry of labor formed a body of National Council for Industrial Health and Safety in 2009. But till today we never found any active role in this regard.

Majority people say that Rajuk is one of the construction monitoring agencies in Dhaka responsible to ensure safety measures. But they are only concerned with the monitoring and controlling of set-back rules and height restrictions of building construction; they have no legal bindings of regulatory or monitory works to ensure safety standards at the construction site. Even new building construction rules and regulations are going to be implemented for Dhaka city that is FAR (floor area ratio) has a focus only on the controlling of building setback and construction volume. This new rule has no guideline for safety issues during construction. So Developers do not feel any incentive to comply with the BNBC from Rajuk. As a result in almost every case both of the owners, contractors and workers are found reluctant to ensure safety measures due to lack of knowledge, experience and consciousness.

The High Court (HC) on 13 October, 2010 issued a rule on the government to establish Bangladesh National Building Code Enforcement Authority in accordance with the code. The HC also asked the government to implement the order within one year into receiving the copy of the judgment. Until the National Building Code Enforcement Authority is established, respondents were directed to designate Rajuk, Chittagong Development Authority, Khulna Development Authority, Barisal City Corporation, Rajshahi City Corporation and Sylhet City Corporation as the code enforcement agency within three months of the receipt of the judgment. Rajuk sources confirmed that they had not yet received the copy of the HC order till last July 20, 2011. But interested people may collect the copy of this order at http://www.blast.org.bd/content/judgement/wt-718-2008.pdf. It is required to be highlighted that some of dedicated Non government volunteer organizations, committed for protecting and promoting human rights of workers in Bangladesh have stared work since 2007. We should remember with gratitude to those NGOs including Safety and Rights Society, Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST) & Bangladesh Occupational Safety Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) filed a writ petition on Rangs Bhaban tragedy of 2007. This High Court order to form BNBC Authority to implement the rules was issued on that petition. Another two safety related organizations named Industrial Safety Board of Bangladesh (ISBB) and Engineering Staff College(ESCB) providing technical training support to the professionals on occupational safety health and environment management since their inception.

This is the real picture of the government regulatory body and law enforcement agencies for ensuring workers heath and safety condition in Bangladesh. So visibly no authorities in the construction sector to enforce rules preventing occupational hazards, although several hundred people die in and around building sites every year.

As there is no government authority to monitor safety for workers and safety measures at construction sites, the Developers are indifferent in this regard. So on ethic both employers and employees are particularly responsible for looking after safety and health in the workplace. This is known as duty of care. So you need to be familiar with those responsibilities as outlined in BNBC as well as ILO adopted Safety and Health in Construction Convention (No.167) and Recommendation (No.175).