THE death of three workers at an under-construction site in Dhaka has yet again exposed the unsafe working condition in the informal sector. The workers died on June 24 when a crane fell on them from a seven-storey building at Kodaldeya of Demra. Worker’s death in the construction sector is commonplace. In February, two construction workers fell from an under-construction building at Mirpur and died. They were working on the exterior wall, standing on the scaffolds, when the rope snapped. Public sector employers of construction work are also found equally negligent in this regard. Legal cases are filed after each of the death, but cases neither bring justice nor work as catalysts for change in the sector. As informal labour is not under the purview of the labour law, construction workers work without any legal protection and families of the deceased have no recognised way of demanding compensation and justice. Employers in the private and public sectors, meanwhile, continue to engage workers without any workplace safety.

In 2022, the Occupational Safety Health and Environment Foundation reported 1,195 deaths at workplace, 134 of which were in the construction sector. In 2005–2016, 1,196 workers died on construction sites. Construction workers also suffer from various work-related health hazards, including breathing problems, hearing loss and skin diseases. Worker rights organisations claim that the actual number of death and injury would be much higher as all death are not reported. Their claims are not unfounded given the sheer disregard for workplace safety. As daily wage labourers, construction workers also work without any job security or wage protection. The workers were also the ones worst hit by the Covid outbreak, as they hardly got any government or other assistance. The National Building Code has provisions on safe construction practices and labour welfare, but monitoring and enforcing safety in construction is still a big challenge because of a confusion regarding enforcement authority, a shortage of human resources for enforcement and a lack of a national safety certification and licensing programme for engineers, contractors and workers. The sector is neglected when it comes to worker rights and well-being.

It is high time that the government revisited its labour law to bring informal labour, including in the construction sector, under a legal purview. The Directorate of Labour should have a database of construction workers so that families of the deceased or the injured can claim compensation. It must develop a mechanism to ensure that construction companies provide workers with a full-range of personal protection equipment and regular and repeated safety training. The government and construction companies must know that workplace safety is not a privilege that an employer provides but a right of the workers.