Enhancing Effectiveness of Occupational Health and Safety of Garments and Textile Industry Workers in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Abstract

Ready-made garments (RMG) and textile sectors, the main foreign currency earning sectors employing over 3.8 million poor workers in Bangladesh, have recently drawn international attention due to concerns related to the occupational health and safety (OHS) of workers. In Bangladesh, yearly 11,700 workers experience fatal injuries and approximately 24,500 die from work related diseases across all sectors. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the current occupational health and safety standard/regulations of garments and textile industry workers in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Twenty garments and textile industries were purposely selected having granted permission from their owners to consult workers. The sample size of the research was 200 undertaking 10 respondents randomly selected for interviews from each garment industry. In addition to the experimental group, a sample of 100 participants comprised of teachers and workers from the education sector were interviewed from a control group for this study. Secondary data was used to examine the OHS policies, practices, and action plans in industries. A variety of statistical techniques (weightage analysis, frequency distribution etc.) were applied to analyze the data. The most pronounced health problem as determined from data collection include: the most pronounced health problems included by severity: knees (86%), shoulders (79%), neck (73%), ankles (60%), low back (56%), wrists (54%), right elbow (52%), and hips (33%). The causes of diseases indicated by respondents include heavy workload with prolonging work in a congested and hot humid environment, and not having meals at the appropriate time. Knowledge about workplace policies, OHS awareness and participation in OHS drills has been assessed by the Likert scale method. Apart from experiencing physical health problem, the workers suffer from mental stress, job and social insecurity. Finally, the research offers recommendations to improve OHS in the RMG and textile industry workers including having a worker-friendly environment, improved OHS care facilities, post-accident rehabilitation, and compensation for work injury.