BANGLADESH Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) revealed in a study conducted recently that at least 1,240 workers were killed and 544 others injured at workplaces nationwide due to lack of occupational safety. This is up from 2015 when there were 951 casualties. Indeed, the trend is upward as one looks at year-to-year data and the largest number of deaths occurred in the transport sector followed by construction. The garments sector posted far fewer deaths but then that is because workers' safety has been under massive scrutiny since the Rana Plaza collapse.

The sad reality is that we have laws in place, but these are poorly enforced when it comes to workers' safety. When poor enforcement is coupled with the general apathy of employers on the issue of safety, we open the doors wide open for deaths that can be greatly reduced if health and safety issues were priority areas of concern at the workplace. Indeed, only two days ago, three construction workers were killed in Savar when the under-construction roof of a food processing factory collapsed on them. According to a report in this paper, the contractor who was responsible for the construction was nowhere to be found and those three workers, now deceased, join the long list of casualties that make up a growing number of people killed for no fault of their own. Unless authorities are willing to enforce existing laws on safety standards at the workplace, death and injury will continue to occur at hazardous work places.