Amnesty International on Wednesday said that garment workers in Bangladesh continued to face a climate of fear and repression as corporate impunity for business-related human rights abuses remained unchecked amid state sanctioned crackdown on workers’ rights.
The rights body also pointed out arbitrary cases against garment workers in Bangladesh to intimidate them into silence, use of unlawful force against protesting garment workers and wider culture of corporate impunity for workplace injuries and deaths in Bangladesh, said a press release of Amnesty issued marking the International Workers’ Day, which was observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere across the globe.
‘Most garment workers are still fighting for decent wages in an industry that brings the most revenue to Bangladesh – and paying a heavy price for fighting for their rights,’ the release quoted Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia Nadia Rahman as saying.
Last month marked the 11th anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza, which left more than 1,100 garment workers dead and thousands injured, it said, adding that the collapse was preceded by a deadly fire in Tazreen Fashions Factory five months earlier, resulting in the death of at least 112 workers trapped by blocked fire exits and padlocked factory premises.
Both disasters in Dhaka region, caused by wholly negligent workplace monitoring, are shocking examples of business-related human rights abuses, the release added.
They expose the human cost of systemic lack of regulation of corporate activities and the desperate need for improved occupational health and safety in line with international standards on business and human rights for all workers in Bangladesh.
The compensation cases filed in connection to the Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust and other NGOs against relevant state authorities, as well as local building and factory owners, have not been resolved in the last eleven years, according to AI.
Among other remedies, the cases sought just compensation for the reprehensible negligence that led to the deaths and injuries of thousands of workers, the release said.
‘It’s been more than a decade but attempts to establish corporate accountability for the Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions fire at national and international levels have been largely unsuccessful, highlighting the precarious conditions the garment workers continue to face in Bangladesh. Rights-based compensation for occupational injuries remains a distant dream with arbitrary limits in labour law and lack of compliance, both of which must change,’ said Nadia Rahman
‘In addition to the lack of justice, most workers today are still fighting for decent wages in an industry that brings the most revenue to Bangladesh and paying a heavy price for fighting for their rights.’
Amnesty said that Bangladesh must also ratify and then comply with the two key International Labor Organization Conventions 155 and 187 on occupational health and safety along with ILO conventions 102 and 121 on minimum standards of relief for victims of occupational injuries and deaths.
‘We also urge the Government of Bangladesh to immediately end the repression of worker rights and ensure that they can exercise their right to freedom of expression and association… without fear of reprisals,’ said Nadia.
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