'Increase compensation for workplace deaths'

Speakers at a roundtable on Monday urged the government to increase the compensation for labourers who die at their workplace to Tk 2 million from Tk 200,000 as proposed in the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2018.

They also demanded the compensation be raised by 25 per cent if a worker suffers permanent disability due to an injury and strict measures be taken against all kinds of sexual harassment at workplace.

The roundtable was organised by Prothom Alo in association with Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) at the daily’s Karwan Bazar office in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Trade Union Centre general secretary Wajedul Islam Khan urged the government to abolish the rule that says consent of 20 per cent workers is needed to form a trade union.

“There should be no such requirements in forming a trade union,” he observed.

He also said the compensation should be equal to the life-long earnings of a worker.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem said that the government should consider establishing labour courts in factory-intensive areas so that labourers get legal help without any trouble.

Defending the government-proposed compensation, state minister for labour and employment Mujibul Haque said the amount set by the government is minimum and it is impossible for low-capital companies to pay Tk 2 million in Bangladesh's reality.

Apart from the compensation they get from the owners, the workers, even who are in the informal sector, get compensation from Bangladesh Workers' Welfare Foundation.

The state minister regretted that both the owners and workers take uncompromising stance whenever the government proposes any law.

BLAST adviser and former High Court judge Md Nizamul Huq Nasim, member of parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment ministry Israfil Alam, labour rights activist Hameeda Hossain, Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments inspector general Md Shamsuzzaman Bhuiyan, textile garment workers federation president Abul Hossain, Naripokkho’s Kamrun Nahar and BLAST’s Barkat Ali also spoke at the roundtable conducted by Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayum.