While the statistics indicate a rising trend in both frequency and number of workplace accidents and casualties, the government for unknown reasons has been sitting on a draft new labour law providing for much higher compensation than for victims of workplace accidents for over a decade.

Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (Oshe) through an audit of the country's 16 leading newspapers including four English dailies tabled that data and found garments, construction, ship-breaking and rice mill the top four accident-prone sectors.

But, as the casualty figures are solely newspaper report-based, the actual figures probably are much higher, as not all industrial accidents are run by the media.

In contrast, the factory inspection office of the government says only 163 people were killed and a few thousands injured in 3,412 serious and 20,414 minor factory accidents from 1995 to 2004. A number of sources concerned dubbed these figures simply ridiculous.

The Oshe study found boiler blast, fire sparked by electric short-circuit, faulty lift, stampede from fire panic and building collapse were the major causes of workplace accidents in the garment sector.

The causes in case of the construction sector were fall from a height, scaffolding collapse, electrocution and roof/wall collapse, in ship-breaking gas blast, fire, exposure to lethal gas and hit by metal object, and in rice mills boiler blast and physical contact with open motor belt.

But, the employers were not brought to book for any of the accidents caused mainly due to their wilful violation of safety norms, which is a deliberate crime, observed many a rights activist. They consider the deaths virtual murders and the injuries attempts to the same.

"You cannot call them accidents. They are plain, wilful killing and maiming. They happened because, to speed up production and inflate profit, the factory owners did not comply with even the minimum safety standards and denied the workers their right to have safety gears, and safe work procedure and environment," said Shirin Akhter, president of the women rights watchdog Karmojibi Nari.

These profiteering factory owners get off the hook, as most of the time the investigations into the industrial accident-casualties die away or put on ice halfway or conducted half-heartedly, she remarked.

On this issue, Chief Factory Inspector Serajuddin observed, "The owners violate the safety laws as the punishment is but nominal," and added: "After several accidents, we made them pay compensations to the victims, but they have not ever been jailed."

According to the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, the family of a worker killed in a workplace accident will get just Tk 21,000 as compensation.

If the family lodges a case against the owner, he submits that amount to a labour court commissioner, who hands it over to the plaintiff. Serajuddin said, "When we file a case against an owner, he gets away simply by paying the fine."

That is that. There is no law that provides for punishing the owners personally for safety rule violation.

The chief inspector also regretted that "a draft new labour law has been shelved for more than 10 years now. If the law had been enacted, the families of killed and injured workers would get much higher compensations."

Recently, an industrial safety expert from Japan, Toyoki Nakao, came to Dhaka. He, too, reckoned that the actual workplace causalities in Bangladesh are much higher in number than reported by the newspapers. "I think the real scenario is worse than what comes out in newspapers."

Nakao said 20 factory inspection offices are in operation in Tokyo alone. The number of industrial safety inspectors engaged across Japan is about 6,000, he told The Daily Star, "against a total of 1,600 causalities last year."

In comparison, in Bangladesh only 20 inspectors are tasked with inspecting the safety status and scenario of thousands of medium and large factories, with the small plants and non-formal sectors remaining unchecked and unaccounted for.