Much has been written about the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers since the 2012 Dhaka garment factory fire which broke out on 24 November 2012, in the Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. At least 117 people were confirmed dead in the fire, and over 200 were injured.

The fire, presumably caused by exposed wires, started on the ground floor of the nine-story factory, trapping the workers on the floors above. Because of the large amount of fabric and yarn in the factory, the fire was able to quickly spread to other floors, complicating firefighting operations. The fire burned for more than seventeen hours before the firefighters extinguished it.

Some workers who had escaped to the roof of the building were rescued. The fire department’s operations manager, Mohammad Mahbub, stated that the factory lacked the adequate emergency exits that would have made it possible to escape from the building, especially since the fire broke out in the warehouse on the ground floor and quickly moved up to higher floors.

Of the building’s three staircases, all three led through the ground floor, making them extremely dangerous and unusable in the case of a ground floor fire. That left many workers trapped and unable to get out of the building.

It is sad that the building codes and standards in poor countries like Bangladesh are nonexistent, it is not rocketing science, why do the worlds fashion industry demand the minimum A) Means of escape in case of fire, B) adequate fire alarms throughout, C) An adequate number of fire hoses and extinguishers, D) Staff training in what to do in case of fire etc.

Only six months later on 24 April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-story building in the suburb of Savar which housed multiple clothing manufacturing companies along with a bank and some apartments, collapsed killing over 1,100 workers and injuring 2,000 more. The building was evacuated days earlier due to a large crack spotted on one of the outer walls. After the accident, the owner of the building was arrested for not possessing adequate safety permits when constructing Rana Plaza, and the clothing factory managers were detained for making their employees come to work in an unsafe environment.

According to the Exporters Association (BGMEA) reported a growth in the RMG industry from 30 enterprises in 1980 to 4482 in 2016- 2017.

At the ILO Convention and in many other multilateral conventions and documents along with the National Labor Law of Bangladesh, Occupational Health and Safety are very important issues at workplace as they are intrinsically linked with the overall well-being of working people.

There is no “Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practice in low categories factories (sub-contract factories, sub-contract for dyeing, printing factories) relate to the preventative, retaliatory and compensatory effects of laws which protect worker’s safety and health. In order that, they are unable to reduce employee injury and illness related costs, including medical care, sick leave and disability benefit costs.

“Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) hazards in the garment sector relates to temperature, noise, light, ventilation, machine, chemical, electrical, and fire safety, not to mention ergonomics, and the health hazards associated with the cotton and other fabrics.

Clearly both employers and the Government of Bangladesh must share the responsibilities and Liabilities for these two, and the dozens of other disasters which have occurred, and those that will occur in the not two distant futures.

Both employers and workers have responsibilities to contribute to a working environment free of health and safety hazards. There is no OHS training applies to both mid-level management and workers to raises awareness and reduces. Poor waste management practice which is a set of characteristic activities includes collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste is a warming for our environment. There is no act upon to prevention of waste production through in-process modification, reuse and recycling which is a formulation of reuse or material recovery. OHS management system is the structure of the management of all the parameters of Occupational Health and Safety.

The guidelines and ways how the OH&S parameters should be implemented in the factories are in the OHS management systems. It also includes the recoding of all events, incidents, training procedures, written program of safety and other OHS issues. To know about the standards and compliance requirements, the workers should be trained until competent. The training should cover all the information about the facilities that they should get from the factories, operational training to run the production process smoothly, workers participation in the health & safety committee, training on first aid, firefighting, emergency evacuation etc.

The social dimensions of the RMG industry are getting more attention from consumers, social workers, welfare organizations and international buyers. Now international buyers are demanding green factory. So, compliance with their “code of conduct” proved a major demand before placing order, whereas some are accepting some fixed general standards of code of conducts. Casual enlistment, low education levels, wage separation, sporadic instalment, compel work and short contracts of administration are extremely regular practices in Bangladesh.

Rented factory premises, narrow staircases, low rooftops, shut situations, nonattendance of lounges, drinking water and nonappearance of independent toilets or normal spaces for female specialists are different worries in facilities, Many international buyers from the United States, European Union, Canada and elsewhere, consider that Bangladesh garments are produced in abusive and exploitative conditions which do not uphold labor rights and standards and acceptable working conditions. The displeasure by Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers and government to lookout its own national laws has provoked international buyers to demand their own Codes of Conduct with local employers.

Since the expiry of the Multi-Fiber Agreement Quota system in 2005, they have requested compliance with their own sets of principles before putting any garments import order, before getting to the main subject of occupational health and safety, it is important to look at the overall state of garment workers’ health in Bangladesh, and their access to health care services.

Workers come from various suburbs of Bangladesh and the villages. Their lower socioeconomic status, coupled with the lack of other viable livelihood options, puts them at a particular disadvantage while dealing with health-related problems. Health needs to be looked at from the broader context of a worker’s daily routine. Workers wake up early to cook for the family, commute long distances to get to work and back, skip breakfast and other meals to save time, drink less water to avoid visiting the restroom and work without pause to meet high production targets.

Stress caused by abusive behavior from supervisors, the repetitive nature of their work and the occupational hazards that they face daily. Various occupational health issues, such as breathing problems and respiratory illnesses that result from inhaling cotton dust, are common in the industry. To make matters worse, garment units where these processes are involved are not classified under hazardous industries, according to an official from the Department of Factories, Boilers, and Industrial Safety & Health.

Musculoskeletal problems like back aches, body, hand and leg pain are reported by most workers because of repetitive work. Although major accidents are not common, minor accidents such as puncture wounds from needles are a daily occurrence. The status of occupational health and safety in developing countries like Bangladesh is especially problematic, with workers bound to work in an unsafe working environment where there is little regard for safety issues and inadequate monitoring from any public or civil society agency.

Poor safety and health record of locations where poor people are ‘employed’ also contribute to worsening the situation. Hence, occupational health and safety are very important irrespective of the type of employment, or size or sector or location of the workplace because of its strong connection with extreme poverty and wellbeing. The research provided consciousness about the existing health and safety condition in the Garments of Bangladesh. The study indicates how environmental components are affected by existing industrial

The displeasure by Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers and government to lookout its own particular national laws has provoked international buyers to demand their own Codes of Conduct with local employers. Since the expiry of the Multi-Fiber Agreement Quota system in 2005, they have requested compliance with their own sets of principles before putting any garments import order (Anner et al., 2012).

One of the first in 1992, when a public scandal followed a report in the Washington. Post about the production of Levi Jeans by Chinese prison labor in the Island of Saipan. Levi Strauss immediately reacted by drawing up a code on labor standards (compliance) for all of its overseas suppliers. Wal-Mart, a major US company, was one of the first retailers to establish a comprehensive code in 1993.

Compliance in RMG has various benefits such as: Gets higher price of products, free from labor unrest, reduce worker turnover rate, increased worker morality, increased productivity, increased product quality, have global image and global recognition for their performance, good public or community relation, improved government-industry relation, satisfaction of the buyer requirement, can work directly with reputed buyers, have consistency in order (Kundo and Nahar, 2014).

As there is no contract or appointment letter, millions of garments workers are vulnerable to losing their jobs at a moment’s notice without benefits. The end of an employment relationship is probably going to be passionless and hopeless experience for a specialist and loss of pay gravely influences his or her family.

Furthermore, gender issues in majority of garments production lines are undermined causing work instability, sporadic wage installment, hardship of the lowest pay permitted by law and advancement introduction. In fact compared to other employment sectors in Bangladesh, job insecurity is higher in the RMG sector.

The RMG wage level is one of the most minimal on the world. Most of the garments factories do not have standard working hours also forced labors is common in Bangladesh. Despite the fact that most work until subsequent to night, there are no security measures for them and no residential facilities or transportation offices gave. Late or sporadic wage payments are normal in the sector.

Generally, the greater parts of the industrial facilities do not Hazards in the garment industry include accident hazards, such as burns and puncture wounds, physical hazards, such as heat and noise, chemical hazards, such as allergies, ergonomic hazards posed by poor posture, biological hazards from poor nutrition, and psychosocial ones that result from abuse on the part of supervisors and a depressing work environment. All of these are inter-related and can affect both productivity in general and the individual health of the worker. Thus, in most cases, workers do not create hazards – hazards are built into the workplace (Padmini and Venmathi, 2012).

Some of the common causes of accidents in the garment industry are poor housekeeping, heavy manual lifting and inadequate use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). According to one study conducted in Bangalore, puncture wounds were the most common type of accident (48.3%), followed by incised wounds (28.1%), blunt injuries (13.5%), burns (5.6%) and foreign bodies (4.5%). Incidents of accidents during the study period were 2.49/1000 workers, with about half of those injured being tailors (S and B, 2006) Exposure to cotton dust causes irritation in the upper respiratory tracts and bronchi, which after prolonged exposures slowly progresses to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Besides all garment industries have dust problems. Dust fibers mainly produced from cutting and sewing sections of garment industries can be seen on workbenches, lamps and even workers hair. The smallest of these fibers are breathed in by the workers and, over the long term, cause a variety of respiratory problems. The problems are made worse as many industries use brooms and dusters to clean the workplace rather than use of industrial vacuum cleaners which simply spreads the dust and dust control is often made worse as workers do not wear their dust masks in the correct fashion.

Moreover, workers are not informed of the dangers associated with their work, or the precautions to be taken while handling chemicals In Bangladesh, garment workers work in a hot and warm humid environment in the production space mainly in sewing section because of lack of proper natural ventilation system with no consideration of factory building envelop construction

Poor housekeeping is the number one cause of accidents because of boxes, thread, trimmings and other combustible materials lying around the shop floor, but also because of dust which, when combined with poor ventilation and the poor quality of masks, can lead to respiratory problems.

Inadequate use of PPE can either be the result of guards that are missing from machines altogether, or of the discomfort workers experience while using them. Workers claim that the use of PPE hinders the meeting of high production targets.

The Factories Act places emphasis on work safety, lighting, temperature and ventilation, cleanliness, disposal of wastes and effluents, dust and fumes and overcrowding, among other things. These aspects do not receive adequate attention in many garment factories in the country. Lack of general training on health and safety, specifically first aid training, is another common anomaly that compromises worker safety.

While the Factories Act provides for annual medical examinations for hazardous industries, the classification of the garment industry as non-hazardous has made the situation worse for workers. The occupational health and safety service in Bangladesh is still in the developmental stage. Here, the occupational health & safety refers mainly to the workers of industries but does not completely cover all occupations of the country. The main laws related to occupational health and safety in this country in the factory Act 1965 and the factory Rule of 1979.

There are several other laws and regulations that are also have some provisions related to occupational health and safety. For certain work environment factors, manufacturing process, machineries and toxic substances, the levels of concentration of substances in the air have been recommended by various international organization and agencies. Which are safe, are implemented in the respective countries. Lack of work environment standards and exposure limits for different hazards and lack of requirement for periodic structured objective driven medical examination are the major deficiency of the legislations in terms of occupational health and safety. Regarding the compliances of labor laws in most the cases there is non-compliance of the laws. The non-compliance of the ILO conventions.

Because the labor legislations in Bangladesh were prepared in International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research conformity with ratified conventions. Country’s constitutions and in considering the socio-economic conditions. Therefore, non-compliance or non-implementations of labor laws have short-term and long-term effect on the economy of Bangladesh. However, certain adverse effects for non-compliance of conventions and legislations may be estimated in the following:

1. The workplace environment in factories and mills will turn into hazardous which may cause accidents and incidents.
2. All accidents and incidents create human sufferings, having direct or indirect costs on the productivity and profits.
3. The hazards, which are prevailing in the industries e.g. electric short circuit in the garment industry, fire in the garment industries is responsible for the occurrence of injuries and diseases, are mostly the outcome of the absence of good working conditions, absence of protective and preventive measures. Poor housekeeping etc.
4. The direct cost of preventing hazards in much smaller than the indirect costs of accidents and illnesses. Cost benefit analysis of an accident may give a clear picture of various items of loss. The productivity as well as the profitability of any industry largely depends upon how far the measures have been taken to prevent and illnesses in the industry.
5. Therefore, the lack of implementations of legal provision i.e. the noncompliance’s of the ILO conventions in the workplaces not only cause less of the workers, it causes a huge loss to the employers and the nation as a whole (2015) found that sample organization does not follow all the provisions regarding health, hygiene and safety of workers as per the Bangladesh Labor Act 2006 amended in 2013.

My Investigation found out that the organization does not ensure the prescribed space for every worker in a work-room; there is no emergency exit and fire exit; all the dangerous machineries are not securely fenced; the company does not thoroughly examine every part of cranes and other lifting machinery regularly, which may cause accident; the company does not follow the schedule to examine every hoist and lift thoroughly by competent person; the latrines, washrooms, dust beans and spittoons are not clean at all times.

Bio:

Dr. Bill Pomfret of Safety Projects International Inc who has a training platform, said, “It’s important to clarify that deskless workers aren’t after any old training. Summoning teams to a white-walled room to digest endless slides no longer cuts it. Mobile learning is quickly becoming the most accessible way to get training out to those in the field or working remotely. For training to be a successful retention and recruitment tool, it needs to be an experience learner will enjoy and be in sync with today’s digital habits.”