The ongoing safety measures, coupled with increased awareness of workers and factory owners, have helped reduce the rate of industrial accidents, especially in the country’s apparel sector, officials and industry insiders said. According to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) data, the number of accidents was reduced to 158 as of September 2015 which was 1,271 in last year. Besides, the DIFE also filed cases against 1,818 law- breakers till September 2015 which was 1,110 in 2014. Of the filed cases, the garment sector witnessed a declining trend, according to the DIFE data. The DIFE took legal actions against some 180 garment factories for violation of law. The authority took same moves against some 216 units last year. A total of 1,638 cases were filed against various establishments and others, DIFE officials said adding in 2014, the number was 894. Workplace safety and labour standards drew huge attention both in the country and abroad especially after the Tazreen fire and the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,200 garment workers and injured several hundreds, they added. The two tragic incidents also pressed the government to upgrade its labour directorate to a full-fledged department with increased manpower mainly to create and ensure better working environment for the workers. Following the repeated industrial accidents, industry people became more aware of the need for taking various safety measures to avoid such casualties not only in garment sector but also in some other sectors, officials and industry people claimed. “There are now many programmes going on in the country’s garment sector related to safety issues and they have started bringing good results,” DIFE Inspector General Syed Ahmed told the FE. Workers, factory managers and inspectors are being trained while there are hotlines so that workers can raise their concerns to the related authorities, he added. Workers have now also become more aware about their rights, he added. BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman also admitted that all the ongoing safety initiatives are helping the country to ensure safety in workplace and labour standards. According to a latest report of the Alliance, response and awareness among Bangladesh’s garment factory workers relating to fire hazards have increased significantly over a couple of years. “In the impact assessment, 45 per cent of workers have correctly recognised all fire hazards – a significant improvement over the baseline which was only 2.0 per cent last year,” said the report. Alliance conducted the in-depth impact of assessment of its training methods to measure their effectiveness and suggest improvements. The assessment found that knowledge and awareness on fire safety have improved among the workers after participating in the Alliance training, it said adding that following the training, workers now have a much better understanding of fire hazards and their roles in emergencies and evacuations. Nazneen Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) opined that it is time to make a comprehensive study whether the rate of accidents has actually been reduced or not and also the nature of such incidents. “The inspection programmes, especially by Accord and Alliance, have identified what needs to be done while entrepreneurs are following those and policy-makers are also providing some benefits, especially in import of safety equipments,” she said. The number of capital machinery import has increased in recent times while most of them are safety equipments, she said adding all these indicate that changes are taking place and awareness is being enhanced.
