Safe industrial buildings are not enough to ensure safety for garment workers in Bangladesh, said a study. It said the issue of intimidation and violence has to be addressed if major changes have to be brought about. A recent report by the International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF) emphasised the need to instil ‘respect for workers’ as the next step towards reforms. “Without it workers’ lives and health will continue to be in jeopardy,” said the Washington-based organisation. The study, based on interviews of more than 70 workers, said that they will not be safe unless they have a ‘voice’ in the work place. It says the workers stressed on the need to break the ‘chilling web of social relations of intimidation and violence’ that exists in factories and apparel companies and even affects their families and communities. Government and law-enforcement agencies fail to protect workers because of this ‘chilling web of social relations’. “Safety, the workers say, is fundamentally about mutual respect and consideration for their different needs,” reads the ILRF report, according to a news agency.
