At least 341 workers were killed in 226 workplace incidents in last 10 months from January to October of this year, said a report on Monday. Labour rights organisations — Safety and Rights Society and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust — jointly unveiled the report in a press conference held at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. Speakers said monitoring 26 newspapers—15 national and 11 local they have prepared the report where they have observed that no remarkable initiative to ensure workplace safety was taken within the last ten years. All these accidents happened in 53 districts, most causalities were reported in Dhaka 69 workers, in Gazipur 62 workers, said the speakers mentioning that moreover a huge number of incidents were not noticed. ‘If all could be included in the book, the real number will be much higher,’ said Safety and Rights Society executive director Sekender Ali Mina in the press conference held marking four years of Tazreen Fashions fire at Ashulia in 2012 where at least 114 workers were killed. He said most of the causalities were reported due to electrocution – 87 workers and then the factory fire incidents– 62 workers. Since 2007, at least 4,613 workers were killed where 556 workers were killed in factory fire incidents. He blamed lack of punitive actions and proper monitoring of government agencies for the incidents. BLAST, project manager Abdul Malek, SRS advocate and legal officer Hasina Khanam were present among others in the programme.
