Staff Reporter :
Experts at a seminar on Tuesday demanded for setting up a 50-bed general hospital at Savar Leather Industrial City immediately to ensure health security of tannery workers.
They also recommended for checking health of workers in the industrial units regularly, ensuring personal protective equipment (PPE) measure and labour rights, training up on the use of heavy machineries, creating proper awareness among all on health and environment hazards.
The experts came up with the observations at the seminar on health issue of tannery workers organised by Tannery Workers Union (TWU) in cooperation with Solidarity Center-Bangladesh Office and Bangladesh Labour Rights Journalists Forum (BLRJF) at Bangladesh Press Council in the capital.
Prof Dr Belal Ahmed, former divisional head of Community Medicine at Dhaka National Medical College, said that dangerous chemicals and machines are used in leather factories but its workers don’t get any health safety advantages which very unfortunate.
“The government forced to shift the tanneries to Savar from Hazaribagh to make a safe industry. But the government’s wrong decision and factory owners’ indifference turned Savar into a hazard area too. The government could build hospital, school, Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and residence for labour before shifting the tanneries,” he added.
Belal also said garment sector has been compliance but why the leather sector is lagging behind here? “The leather workers are at long time heath risk. Many lost their lives. So, the authority concerned should take proper initiatives on health issue of labours,” he added.
Mohammad Nazrul Islam, program officer of Solidarity Center-Bangladesh Office, urged forming safety committee at every factory, stressing inspection activities there and ensuring to do trade union as per ILO convention and labour acts.
“To make a healthy industry, the workers heath security must be ensured. Now leather workers are suffering various skin disease, asthma, malnutrition, and cancer due to use of around 100 types of chemicals. The health security of the laoburs must be ensured,” he also said.
The TWU General Secretary Abdul Maleque said around 2,00000 workers are engaged in the leather sector direct and indirectly across the country. Of them, around 20,000 are in tanneries. All workers are at health risk.
“We send letter to industries ministry and signed an agreement with factories owners several years ago to set up a 50 beds hospital in Savar leather industrial city. We also noticed them a plot for building hospital but there is no implementation yet,” he added.
He also pointed out that 100 raw materials are collected from local sources. But the second export earning sector is developed due to lack of government policy support.
TWU President Abul Kalam Azad presided over the function while former managing director and chief editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) Azizul Islam Bhuiyan, BLRJF president Quazi Abdul Hannan and its general secretary Ataur Rahman among other also spoke there.
