Construction workers' safety

It is mind-boggling that 30 percent of workers' deaths in all sectors occur in the construction sector alone and that on average one hundred construction workers die every year from accidents that are preventable with a little bit of attention to workers' safety. The figure is culled from the reported cases only. One cannot venture a guess as to the number of workers that suffer injury every year. That was what emerged from the roundtable discussion on the subject of construction safety in Bangladesh organised by The Daily Star and Sheltech, a construction company, on Saturday.

It was rather disheartening also to learn that there is by and large a feeling of complete disregard amongst the workers themselves for their own safety; and it was abundantly clear too that the Building Code 2006 is observed only in its breach, there being no central authority with the power to implement the Code.

Given that the government is woefully short of manpower to implement the building code, it should be up to the construction firms to comply with the Code rather than make savings by cutting cost in the "safety" head. After all, it is no more than one percent of the outlay. Investing in safety in work sites, enhancing awareness and constant monitoring by the employers, would save a lot in terms of money, and on human lives on which one cannot put a value.

As for the government, it should set up a building regulatory body immediately with the power to enforce the Code as well as the authority to punish errant builders/contractors. There is also need to reform the labour law where the status of the construction workers should be specified.