Cheap labour does not equal cheap lives

A photo published on the back page of this daily yesterday, showing two workers on an eight-storey under-construction building in Dhaka's Mohammadpur area, both standing on the very edge with no protective gear or harnesses, concerns us greatly, but does not surprise us at all. The deaths of construction workers in Bangladesh due to precarious working conditions is, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon. Even in September, a construction worker named Mohammad Sajib (24) fell to his death from an eight-storey building he was working at in Dhanmondi. The scaffolding he was working on collapsed, and the "safety belt" he was wearing was obviously not secure enough to prevent the tragedy.

But how long are we going to keep calling the deaths of construction workers "accidents"? Given the absence and/or inadequacy of the safety gear they are provided with by their employers, are incidents such as these not bound to happen? What is more horrifying is that people of all ages are allowed to work these dangerous jobs, including teenage boys and elderly men.

Construction of new buildings, many of them high-rises, abounds all over our cities. But will we continue to call this "development" when these projects are often tainted by preventable deaths of poor workers, who are only looking to earn their livelihoods?

The country's Labour Act does not cover this growing and thriving industry, which is still counted as part of the informal sector. In 2019 alone, the Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health, and Environment Foundation found that 156 construction workers had died on the job. During the pandemic, these workers were among the sections most hard-hit due to not being prioritised for government or other financial assistance. Yet, they are having to risk their lives every day to carry our economy forward, while irresponsible construction firms and employers don't even do the bare minimum to protect them.

The government and labour ministry authorities must legally hold to account those who allow construction workers to work without effective safety gear, subjecting them to severe injuries and even death. Besides implementing existing rules—such as the 2014 National Building Code, which stipulates that everyone working with concrete must wear helmets and gloves—proper laws must be introduced in order to protect the health and safety of construction workers, and to also ensure that they are not paid in mere change for the dangerous work they do.