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Multi Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on OSH Profile of Construction Sector in Bangladesh was organized |
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Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) organized a ‘Multi stakeholder consultation workshop on OSH Profile of
Construction sector in Bangladesh’ on 14 July 2010 at Bangladesh Institute
of Administration and Management (BIAM), Dhaka with support of International
Labour Organization (ILO).
A group of 72 participants (20 female) from national
trade union centres (NCCWE member organisations),
employer’s organizations (Bangladesh Employers
Federation and Bangladesh Association Construction
Industries), representative of relevant different government
agencies (i.e. Ministry of Labour, Department of Labour,
Department of Labour Inspection, Ministry of Health, Dhaka
City corporation), NGOs, academics (University of Dhaka, University of
Engineering and Technology) and civil society groups were attended the workshop.
The workshop was launched with welcome address by Repon Chowdhury,
Executive Director of OSHE. Mr. Israfil Alam, MP Chairman,
Parliamentary Standing Committee, Ministry of labour & Employment
attended in the workshop as chief guest where Mr. Gagan Raj Bhandari,
Director, A.I ILO Area Office, Dhaka; Mr. G A Khan, Secretary General,
BACI; Dr. Wajedul Islam Khan, Member Secretary, NCCWWE and Md. Abdur Razzaque,
Joint Secretary Ministry of labour & employment attended and made speech in the
workshop as guest of honour. Dr. S M Morshed Vice-Chairperman of OSHE moderated this workshop
In his speech in the workshop Mr. Israfil Alam, MP said that one
of the biggest sectors of informal economy is construction that
makes huge contribution to national economy. But in reality, it
is one of the neglected sectors. The precautions of occupational
health and safety are hardly seen in this sector. Furthermore, the
workers of this sector are mostly unconscious about their rights. In
addition, he said that the present workers friendly govt. is very much
dear to this sector. In this consequence, government is trying to review
the present labour law considering the workers health and safety issue.
He also stated that, the Parliamentary standing committee for Ministry of
Labour & Employment would propose to incorporate the rights and welfare issues
of the construction workers at on going review process of Bangladesh Labour Act-2006. |
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Mr. Abdur Razzaque, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Labour in his speech emphasized the need for effective study and data on this sector. He appreciated for taking initiative of drafting national OSH profile for this sector and proposed to submit it to the government to initiate necessary action after finalization it.‘It is an effective endeavour of OSHE that they have developed such kind of OSH profile for construction sector in Bangladesh’, said Dr. Wajedul Islam Khan. He expected that it would be more flourish through this workshop and act as an important information tool for development of future national tripartite actions.
Mr. G A Khan mentioned that they are taking actions trying to reduce accident rate in workplace. In addition he said that in case of improving workplace as well as reducing work related accident in this sector, they would need govt. support. Alongside, he emphasised on education and training for workers. He also added that utilizing WISCON Checklist in each workplace could help as an important tool to ensure safe workplace in this sector.
Mr. Gagan Raj Bhandari said it’s a good initiative for construction sector. It’s one step forward to ILO decent work action plan in Bangladesh. The ILO’s Occupational Safety and Health Conventions and this type of local policy development instruments could play important roles in developing a strong safety culture. He mentioned tripartite initiative is very important to ensure safe workplace. He gave thanks OSHE for organizing and KOSHA for supporting this programme.
In the working session Mr. Bae Gye Wan, Director, Construction Safety Department KOSHA, Korea executed a power point presentation based on National Policy & experiences on OSH in Construction sector in Korea. After his presentation, he opened the floor for the participants to ask for question upon his presentation. All the participants attended this session actively.
After that Mr. Repon Chowdhury shared the draft OSH profile among the participants focusing on the background of the profile, objectives, key issues, limitations etc. After this presentation, a panel discussion was held in the view of carry out valuable comments on draft OSH Profile in Construction sector for its improvement, where discussants were Prof. Dr. Syed Istiaque Ahmed, Dept. of Civil Engineering, BUET; Eng. Hafizur Rahman, National OSH Expert; Abdul Mukit Khan, Acting President-BFTUC; Ms. Shuchita Sharmin, Asst. Professor, Development Studies, University of Dhaka. All discussants were appreciated this initiative mentioning some existing statistical limitation in the draft profile. They suggested arranging divisional workshop followed by a national workshop for finalizing the profile as well as translated it in Bengali for better output.
Dr. Salamat Khandker, National Consultant, WHO Country Office in Bangladesh presented a research report based on “Occupational Safety and Health status of Construction Sector in Bangladesh.” In this session, presenter shared the key findings of workers’ survey, site survey, FGD with NGO/Trade Unions and FGD with sub-contractors. Following recommendations are made in this presentation:
- OSH law on construction safety needs to be updated. This should ensure that key responsibilities are placed upon developers/main contractors as the ‘principal contractors’ but also deal with responsibilities of sub-contractors.
- The Bangladesh Government should ratify ILO Convention 167.
- The Government should either establish a new enforcing body or nominate an existing body to enforce the BNBC.
- Guidance needs to be produced for developers, government bodies, engineers and sub-contractors, and workers on the requirements of the BNBC. This should be in Bengali and English.
- Training needs to be provided to all of these parties-in particular developers and engineers.
- Procurement tender documents need to be strengthened to increase OSH conditions into the terms of the contract, and to introduce OSH criteria into the tender documents. These to be monitored by the government bodies contracting the work.
After this session the floor was opened for open discussion for the participants. In this session, participants made following key recommendations on Draft OSH profile for construction sector of Bangladesh:
- The draft profile should be translated into Bengali (mainly proposed by workers group attend the workshop) for the better understanding of all stakeholders.
- Consultation workshop should be organise at divisional level (Chittagong and Sylhet) in the view of sharing draft OSH profile with the key stakeholders at divisional level as well as find out recommendations for its development.
- A high level national consultation workshop should be organised with the members of National Industrial Health and Safety committee before finalization it.
- OSHE should carry out necessary lobby & advocacy with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to finalize the draft OSH profile.
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For more information: A.R. Chowdury REPON, OSHE
E-mail: oshe@agni.com
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