Bangladesh, being a lower middle
income country focuses on infrastructure development rapidly now-a-days.
However, taking proper precaution in building these projects is crucial to
ensure safety for public and workers as well during construction. A worker was
killed and two others including an engineer were injured as a 36-metre-long
girder weighing about 70 tonnes of the Malibagh-Mouchak-Mogbazar flyover fell
on 13 March in Dhaka. Another girder collapsed during installation at the same
spot few days before albeit none was hurt at that time. Almost a year ago,
25-year-old construction worker Rabbi Ahmed Emon died due to fall of iron rods
from the same flyover on him in the same area. Subsequently, a High Court bench
consisted of Justice Obaidul Hasan and Justice Krishna Debnath ordered the
authorities concerned to take public safety measures in Moghbazar-Mouchak
flyover construction last year. Earlier at least four people died and 15 were
injured when a concrete girders of the under-construction flyover at
Bahaddarhat in Chittagong collapsed in 2012.
Recurrence of safety failure
resulting death and fatal injury in construction sector indicate the impunity
with which the employers tend to evade workplace safety laws while the toiling
workmen continue to be deprived of their basic human rights including 'right to
life', the number one fundamental human right, in exchange of their job. In
addition repeated failure of concerned authority to bring the perpetrators into
justice clearly shows their reluctance to prevent these kinds of unfortunate
killing. It has been now proved that lives of the workers are cheaper even than
their cheap labour.
This
kind of killing can be regarded as corporate manslaughter. However, the Penal
Code, 1860 and some other special piece of legislations have been enacted for
protecting individual right to life and liberty from attack of other
individual(s), but there is absence of proper legislation for addressing
killing of people for acts of a corporate body. Corporate manslaughter is a
crime which enables a corporation to be punished and censured for culpable
conduct that leads to a person's death and it extends beyond compensation that
might be awarded in civil litigation or any criminal prosecution of an
individual for his individual act. The criminal liability of the owners of
corporation is direct in such a way that he is the ultimate beneficiary of the
corporation; and the ultimate decision makers of a corporation are some individuals
and not the corporate personality.
In
addition, one can liable the employer for strict liability in this case. In a
strict liability case the plaintiff does not have to prove the general
contractor or developer was negligent in the construction rather s/he has to
prove the defendant was involved in the construction, a defect in the
construction exists, damages were proximately caused by the defect, and the
defendant caused or created the defect.
The dark surface behind this
impunity is that there are no provisions in the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 requiring
employers to stop fall from height or stopping electrocution or safe use of
trenches etc. However, most of the provisions inserted in this legislation
relating to worker health and safety issues are not relevant to the key issues
of safety on construction sites.
Nevertheless,
the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), 2006 is applicable to
construction sites, but even in the Code there are few provisions which deal
with the safety of the workmen during construction. Part-7, chapter -1
of the Code clearly sets out the constructional responsibilities according to
which the relevant authority of a particular construction site shall adopt some
precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the workmen. So, the employer
can never escape himself from being responsible in case of any violation of the
safety provisions.
Section 1.4.1 of chapter-1,
part-7 of the Code, states the general duties of the employer to the public as
well as workers. According to this section, “All equipments and safeguards
required for the construction work such as temporary stair, ladder, ramp,
scaffold, hoist, run way, barricade, chute, lift etc shall be substantially
constructed and erected 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”. Therefore, the safety issue of the construction workers during
construction is a precondition for the site authority. The site authority or
the relevant employer of the workers must provide the construction workers with
the safety tools prior to the introduction of the construction or demolition or
even in case of handling of materials. However, employers usually want to avoid
their liabilities either by claiming that the workers denied to take safety
tools and failed to ensure their own safety by themselves or merely naming this
as accident.
Part-7, Chapter-3 of the Code has clarified
the issue of safety of workmen during construction and with relation to this,
set out the details about the different safety tools (PPE) of specified
standard like goggles, gloves, safety boots, apron and hand shield having
filter glass of accepted standard and suitable to the eyes of a particular
worker. In relation with the health hazards of the workers during construction,
this chapter describes the nature of the different health hazards that normally
occur in the site during construction and at the same time specifies the
specific measures to be taken to prevent such health hazards. According to this
chapter, exhaust ventilation, use of protective devices, medical check up etc.
are the measures to be taken by the particular employer to ensure a healthy
workplace for the workers.
With relation to the safety
measures against electrocution and fall from height, two most common causes of
workplace fatality, the Code in its section 3.1.3 of chapter 3 of Part 7 has
specified that warning signs shall be displayed where necessary to indicate
hazardous areas like hi-voltage zone. In addition, according to section 3.9.2
of chapter 3 of part 7, “all cables and signal cords are required to be guarded
wherever such cables and cords pass through or cross working spaces.”
Moreover, to prevent workers
falling from heights, the Code in section 3.7.1 to 3.7.6 of chapter 3 of part 7
sets out the detailed requirements on the formation and use of scaffolding.
According to section 3.9.2 of the same chapter, “every temporary floor openings
shall either have railing of at least 900 mm height or shall be constantly
attended. Every floor hole shall be guarded by either a railing with toe board
or a hinged cover. Alternatively, the hole may be constantly attended or
protected by a removable railing. Every stairway floor opening shall be guarded
by railing at least 900 mm high on the exposed sides except at entrance to
stairway. Every ladder way floor opening or platform shall be guarded by a
guard railing with toe board except at entrance to opening. Every open sided
floor or platform 1.2 meters or more above adjacent ground level shall be
guarded by a railing on all open sides except where there is entrance to ramp,
stairway or fixed ladder.
Despite that survey report of
the Bangladesh Worker Safety Programme (BWSP) reveals that construction workers
make up 50% of workplace victims. Among 222 workplace deaths, 103 were in the
construction sector and the most common causes of all deaths were
'electrocution'(54) and 'fall from height'(38) (The Daily Star, November 20,
2008).
However, according to the BNBC
the government is obliged to constitute a common building regulatory authority
to monitor the whole process all over the country. With relation to the
provision of setting up the BNBC Enforcement Authority, the Bangladesh Legal
Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and the Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health
and Environment Foundation (OSHE) jointly filed a writ petition in the High
Court Division on January 27, 2008 to redress the failure of the government to
establish an agency to enforce the Code in particular the provisions relating
to worker safety issues. Unfortunately no such body does exist in the country
till today!
Workers'
welfare has been guaranteed in the Constitution of the Peoples' Republic of
Bangladesh. Article 14 dictates that “It shall be a fundamental responsibility
of the State to emancipate the toiling masses, the peasants and workers, and
backward sections of the people from all forms of exploitation”. Article 15
also mentions the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable wage and the
right to social security. Additionally, the government has already formulated
the National Occupational Health and Safety Policy, 2013; furthermore,
Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation (Amendment) Act, 2013 was enacted and
Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation Rule, 2010 was introduced. Moreover,
Bangladesh Labour Rules was also in operation from 2015. The aim of the
National Labour Policy of 2012 is to ensure an investment friendly atmosphere
by a creating productive, exploitation free, decent, safe, and healthy
workplace for active citizens and to establish workers' rights and dignity of
work. These legislations and policies are all in place to ensure the rights of
workers in Bangladesh.
Trivial and shamefully
inadequate amount of compensation which has been offered to the families of the
dead and injured workers after these kinds of incidents exemplifies the
disregard and disrespect for construction workers without whose blood the tag
of lower middle income country could not have earned. The situation demands that
the State as well as other stakeholders must address the rights of workers with
seriousness failing which they should all be held accountable for involuntary
manslaughter, which is a direct consequence of gross negligence and breaches of
workplace safety laws. Accordingly, civil as well as criminal liabilities
should be imposed upon them for not exercising due diligence in ensuring
workplace safety.
Workers
are integral parts of industry and national development. Hence an Employment
Injury Insurance (EII) policy must be taken by the government to provide an
immediate response in terms of compensating those directly affected by
workplace accidents. Without ensuring safety in work place no development would
be sustainable and the country will be defeated in achieving its development
goal within the time limit.
