Human Rights Analysis
Strict enforcement of law can contain garments disasters
Alok Sarkar
When we talk about the law enforcing agencies generally we think of the police and others related to police department, working under the ministry of home affairs. But we do not know that, in matters of labour law, the law enforcing agency happens to be mainly the Department of Factory Inspection. The Chief Factory Inspector is given the power to stop functioning of any factory if it contravenes any of the provisions of Factory Law. As the law enforcer he can prosecute any factory owner for violation of rules laid down in the Factory Law. One can find the utter negligence of this department in inquiring the causes behind the series of catastrophic disasters occurred in the garment sector of the country.
The fire in KTS Garment at Chittagong which left 55 workers instantly dead and several others injured with serious burn injuries gradually raising the death toll above 60, once again surfaced the question of non-compliance of law in the industrial sector especially in the garment sector believed to be the most important one in respect to our economy in the present time.
During the last 15 years since the beginning of the decade of 90s of the last century till to date, apart from other accidents, 24 fire incidents in this sector alone claimed around 300 lives and caused injuries to several hundred more, living some of them partially or fully disabled. At present about 2 million workers are employed in this sector and from this it may be considered as the most labour intensive sector in the country. It is admitted by the quarters concerned that this sector is contributing 76 per cent of the total foreign currency earning of the country and in consequence the sector is blessed with the facilities extended by the government and its functionaries. But during the last 15 years or more it was experienced that the million of workers who made significant contributions to the garment sector were not ensured the minimum justice for them. The entire blessings for this sector made fortune for the employers and the unfortunate workers of whom more than 75 per cent women were the victims of the international market competition on one hand and on the other, the utter negligence of the concerned quarters responsible for the implementation of labour law.
To all, death is natural and inevitable but the guarantee of natural and normal death for the helpless workers of the garment sector is absent due to the gross violation of the labour law relating to the safety measures. When death occurs in consequence of the acts or negligence of any person or persons then it is an offence under Penal Code though not amounting to murder yet at least abatement of killing by negligence, and deserves trial under the sections of penal code. The series of fires in this sector caused the most painful deaths of hundreds being helplessly burnt behind the locks. More than 300 workers were burnt to death in confinement behind the illegally locked exits of the factories.
But each time whether it is the building collapse Spectrum Garment or Phoenix Group in Dhaka or fire in the Sun Knitting Factory of Shiddhirganj, Narayanganj or devastating fire inside the factory building of KTS in Chittagong, the persons liable to be accused and punished were not brought under law and even the liability was not fixed and this is the main cause of unimpeded recurrence of the unfortunate accidents claiming lives of the helpless workers. Now it is imperative to contain the situation with strong hand.
In the Spectrum disaster it was found the factory building was not built with the permission of any of the authorities like RAJUK, Savar Municipality, or the Cantonment Board for estate administration. One can raise an unauthorised construction but it is subjected to demolition by the concerned authority, if found illegal. The Factory Law of our country doesn't allow a building to be used as a factory unless it has initially, at the time of construction, obtained clearance from the office of the Chief Factory Inspector for the particular nature of factory building. But after the disaster of the Spectrum Garment the office of the chief inspector expressed their inability to ensure the compliance of factory law by the factory owners with the excuse of limited manpower. But the excuse could not satisfy the concerned quarters, which know this sector closely.
After the MFA phase out this sector, the most labour intensive one amongst the industries, is facing the challenge of global competition. Considering the occurrence of the series of fatal accidents it was needed especial attention and the safety of the sector should have been dealt with priority by the department of the factory inspection. At least the big factories should have been inspected and which could be done even with the existing limitation of manpower. It is always heard specially after such kind of disaster, that there are only 12 or 13 Inspectors for whole of the country and with this excuse the department escapes its responsibility and also the liability. But question can obviously be raised, what these 12 or 13 Inspectors do? Do they find out factories running without licences from the department? Do they inspect the factories running without compliance of Factory Law? Do they find out the factories compelling the women workers to work in night time? Obviously the answer is no. Because no one have any knowledge of filing any case against any factory owner for his non-compliance of Factory Law. But even a layman can see the violations of factory laws moving round the city areas and its outskirts.
History says that, the Factory Law in British India was the result of the pressure of Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and Manchester Business Group who were facing uneven competition in the market with the British Indian employers privileged by the unfettered right to exploit the workers in India. It was a resultant effect of business and market competition among the employers group of British India and Great Britain. However the British Parliament passed the law for India in 1881 and that was the first law for the workers. This factory law was reformed in 1922 after the acceptance of the convention of working hours in the ILO in 1919.
The present Factory Law is the amendment of the Indian Factory Law of 1934, which was amended in 1965 to make it more befitting for the purpose and was adopted through legislation after the emergence of independent Bangladesh. The factory owners are bound to abide by the rules and provisions of this law and the persons responsible from the govt. side are bound to ensure the compliance of this law without fail.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Factory Law in sections starting from 12 to 48 lay the provisions for health and hygiene, safety and welfare including the specifications for a building and premise to run factory. The section 6 of this law requires a possessor or user of a factory building to furnish a notice to the Chief Factory Inspector at least before 15 days of its functioning as the factory building. So it is implied that no factory can start without the written permission from the Chief Factory Inspector or of his representative empowered for the purpose. If it is other then it is primarily the failure of the Department of Factory Inspection.
KTS garment is a factory, which was running its business in the industrial area of Bangladesh Small Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) at Chittagong and the place in no way can be considered as a secret one and remaining out of the sight of the concerned personnel of the govt. department.
But it is unfortunate that the law-enforcing agency in respect of factory laws, which is responsible for this disaster through its utter negligence to prevent the violation of factory laws, let it go unaccounted for in all the cases. At least the person or persons responsible should be brought under the purview of the existing law of Bangladesh. Penal Code (BPC) lays the provisions of punishment for their negligence of duties being the public servants. The existing law (Section 119 of Bangladesh Penal Code) states that:
"Whoever being a public servant intending to facilitate or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby facilitate the commission of an offence which it is his duty as public servant to prevent, voluntarily conceals by any act or illegal omission, the existence of a design to commit such offence or makes any representation which he knows to be false respecting such design, Shall if the offence be committed, be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extended to one half of the longest term of such imprisonment or with such fine as provided for that offence or with both.” .
In penal code death caused by negligence is considered as punishable offence and the offender is liable to imprisonment, though the offence is not culpable homicide or murder. The negligence of the factory owners comes under section 304 A of BPC and the concerned govt. officials are subject to be prosecuted under section 119 of BPC for abetement. But in none of the cases of garment incidents where scores of lives of the helpless workers were lost and also some hundreds of them left either fully or partially disabled, no such instance has been set.
It is learnt from the reports in newspapers that there exists a social compliance forum for the garment sector, headed by the commerce minister, though it is not clear why this forum is headed by the commerce minister leaving the ministers of the more concerned ministries like labour or industries and who from private and public sectors represent as the members of the task force, still it is the right of the members of the public to know what progress has so far been achieved in this regard. A report also said quoting the source from the commerce ministry that govt. declared a deadline of two weeks starting from 5 March to detect the non-compliant garment factories and consequent shutting of those. But there was no report of any such detection or such shutting down in consequence of non-compliance.
The factory law, perhaps the first effective law in the industrial sector, was promulgated in this subcontinent in 1881. Before that the enactments relating to industries cannot be considered as labour law because those were only the tools for the repression of the workers favouring the most privileged employer class blessed by the then imperial rule in British India. “The workmen breach of contract act” of 1959 can be mentioned as one of those which gave unfettered right to arrest the workers and bring back and punish those who used to seek safety by fleeing away the workplace, being unable to bear the inhuman physical labour and torture by the employers, and ultimately this law was repealed. But the law on fatal accident, “The Fatal Accident Act of 1855” is the act which can be considered as the law very much befitting any kind of fatal accident caused by the negligence of any person or persons. In this law the court has been given the power to assess the amount of compensations to the victims considering the loss occurred by accidents in consequence of the negligence of any person or persons.
So there is law and to face the situation like fire in KTS garment, Sun Knitting garment and building collapses in Spectrum garment and Phoenix group, to provide the compensations for the victims and award punishments to those who are responsible for the unfortunate and undesired incidents. The strict implementation of labour laws and the laws applicable for different cases can only bring the solution and combat the disorderly situation of the sectors related with industrial production and thus ensure the friendly environment for the workers, employers and the economy, else a very gloomy future is awaiting for all of us.
Alok Sarkar, an advocate and human rights activist, is presently working for Karmojibi Nari, an initiative of working women.
