workers
Dredger capsized during Sitrang: Bodies of 8 workers recovered
Bodies of eight workers, who went missing after a dredger sank in the Bay of Bengal as Cyclone Sitrang hit the coastal districts Monday (October 24, 2022) night, were recovered from the Bay off the coast of Mirsarai in Chattogram on Tuesday.
Five of the deceased were identified as Mahmud Molla, Alamin, Imam Molla, Abul Bashar and Tarek. They all are from Patuakhali district.
Read Cyclone Sitrang kills at least 29 across Bangladesh
The sand lifting dredger (Saikat-2) was anchored, with the eight workers on board, in the sea around 1000 feet away from the embankment in Bashundhara area of the upazila and sank in the sea during the storm triggered by Cyclone Sitrang around 10 pm last night, Md Kabir Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Mirsarai Police Station, said.
Mirsarai police and fire service divers recovered the bodies from the sunken dredger around 2 pm, the OC added.
Read Cyclone Sitrang aftermath: 10,000 houses in 419 unions damaged, says state minister
Dredger manager Rezaul Karim said six more dredgers were kept in the area adjacent to the embankment in Bashundhara area. “All the other workers managed to evacuate to a safe place following the cyclone, but the eight workers of the dredger Saikat-2 did not return.”
BGMEA, Wagely sign MoU to facilitate financial health for RMG workers
Bangladesh Garment Manchesters and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Wagely Bangladesh Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at BGMEA Complex to raise awareness and increase the adoption of Earned Wage Access (EWA) for garment workers in Bangladesh.
On behalf of BGMEA, President Faruque Hassan inked the MoU with Wagely on Monday that aims to collaborate on making wagely’s EWA accessible to the garment industry.
“BGMEA attaches utmost importance to ensuring the wellbeing of garment workers who are at the heart of the RMG industry. Since the financial wellness of the garment workers is important for us, I believe this will help garment factories,” Faruque Hassan said.
He expressed hope that the initiative of wagely will a play an important role in improving the financial health of more than 4 million garment workers in the RMG sector.
wagely is building a holistic financial wellness platform with EWA at its core that lets workers of partner employers access their earned salary in real-time and financial education.
Read: Bangladesh to stay safe, sustainable apparel sourcing destination: BGMEA
This is proven to reduce worker migration, improve productivity, and increase business savings, BGMEA said on Tuesday.
“We are very grateful to receive this immense support from BGMEA and are strongly committed to increasing financial wellbeing for Bangladeshi workers” said Tobias Fischer, CEO and Co-Founder of wagely.
BGMEA and wagely will jointly move forward to raise awareness and increase the adoption of EWA for the workers and support each other in educating and uplifting financial health as it expands into becoming a holistic financial platform for all users.
BGMEA Vice President Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, Chair of BGMEA Standing Committee on Press, Publication and Publicity Shovon Islam, Chair of BGMEA Standing Committee on Trade Fair Mohammed Kamal Uddin, Chair of BGMEA Standing Committee on Trade Arbitration-1 M. Kafil Uddin Ahmed and Director of Giant Group Ashaab Adeeb Hassan were also present at the MoU signing ceremony.
8 killed in India elevator crash
As many as eight workers died after a platform lift at an under-construction building in the western Indian state of Gujarat plunged seven floors to the ground on Wednesday.
The tragedy occurred on the campus of the prestigious Gujarat University in the city of Ahmedabad this morning, police said.
Read: India’s main opposition protests rising prices, lack of jobs
"Preliminary investigation has revealed the elevator carrying the workers crashed to the ground from the seventh floor, killing the eight," deputy police commissioner Lavina Sinha told the local media.
A probe has been ordered into the accident, the officer said, adding that directors of the private firm contracted by the university for the construction of the building could be booked for negligence.
Read:Donald Lu to visit India Sept 5-8 to deepen India-U.S. global strategic partnership
Hundreds of workers die every year in work-related accidents at construction sites across the country, where safety rules are hardly adhered to.
N. Korea may send workers to Russian-occupied east Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, North Korea is hinting at its interest in sending construction workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in the country's east.
The idea is openly endorsed by senior Russian officials and diplomats, who foresee a cheap and hard-working workforce that could be thrown into the “most arduous conditions," a term Russia's ambassador to North Korea used in a recent interview.
North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow recently met with envoys from two Russia-backed separatist territories in the Donbas region of Ukraine and expressed optimism about cooperation in the “field of labor migration,” citing his country’s easing pandemic border controls.
The talks came after North Korea in July became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of the territories, Donetsk and Luhansk, further aligning with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
The employment of North Korean workers in Donbas would clearly run afoul of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear and missile programs and further complicate the U.S.-led international push for its nuclear disarmament.
Many experts doubt North Korea will send workers while the war remains in flux, with a steady flow of Western weapons helping Ukraine to push back against much larger Russian forces.
But they say it’s highly likely North Korea will supply labor to Donbas when the fighting eases to boost its own economy, broken by years of U.S.-led sanctions, pandemic border closures and decades of mismanagement.
The labor exports would also contribute to a longer-term North Korean strategy of strengthening cooperation with Russia and China, another ideological ally, in an emerging partnership aimed at reducing U.S. influence in Asia.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin has said that North Korean construction companies have already offered to help rebuild war-torn areas in Donbas, and that North Korean workers would be welcomed if they come.
That’s a clear break from Russia's position in December 2017, when it backed new U.N. Security Council sanctions, imposed on North Korea for testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, requiring member states to expel all North Korean workers from their territories within 24 months.
Russia now seems eager to undercut those sanctions as it faces a U.S.-led pressure campaign aimed at isolating its economy over its aggression in Ukraine, said Lim Soo-ho, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s spy agency.
“For Russia, the idea of employing North Korean workers for postwar rebuilding has real merit,” Lim said. “Large numbers of North Korean construction workers came to Russia in previous years, and demand for their labor was strong because they were cheap and known for quality work.”
Before the 2017 sanctions, labor exports were a rare legitimate source of foreign currency for North Korea, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the government.
Read:UN inspectors head to Ukraine nuclear plant in war zone
The U.S. State Department earlier estimated that about 100,000 North Koreans were working overseas in government-arranged jobs, primarily in Russia and China, but also in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia.
Civilian experts say the workers earned $200 million to $500 million a year for North Korea's government while pocketing only a fraction of their salaries, often toiling for more than 12 hours a day under constant surveillance by their country’s security agents.
While Russia sent home some North Korean workers before the U.N. deadline in December 2019, an uncertain number remained, continuing to work or becoming stuck after the North sealed its borders to fend off COVID-19.
North Korea could easily mobilize possibly several hundreds or even thousands of workers to Donbas if it decides to use the laborers who remained in Russia, said Kang Dong Wan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Dong-A University.
It’s not yet clear how lucrative Donbas would be for North Korea.
Russia is short of cash, battered by Western sanctions targeting its financial institutions and a broad swath of industries. North Korea likely has no interest in being paid in rubles because of worries about the currency's purchasing power, which bottomed out during the war's early days before Moscow took steps to artificially restore its value.
North Korea might be willing to be compensated with food, fuel and machinery, an exchange that would likely also violate Security Council sanctions, Lim said.
Hong Min, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Institute for National Unification, said North Korea could have bigger things in mind than short-term gains from labor exports.
“The United States’ strategic competition with China and confrontation with Russia have given North Korea breathing room as it steps up to join Moscow and Beijing in a united front to counter U.S. influence and promote a multipolar international system,” Hong said.
North Korea has already used the war in Ukraine to ramp up its weapons development, exploiting divisions in the Security Council, where Russia and China vetoed U.S.-sponsored resolutions to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its revived ICBM tests this year.
North Korea and Russia also see eye-to-eye on key policies.
North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the Ukraine crisis, saying the West’s “hegemonic policy” justifies military actions by Russia in Ukraine to protect itself.
Russia, meanwhile, has repeatedly condemned the revival of large-scale military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea this year, accusing the allies of provoking North Korea and aggravating tensions.
Alexander Matsegora, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, has backed its dubious assertion that its COVID-19 outbreak was caused by South Korean activists who flew anti-North Korean leaflets and other materials across the border with balloons.
Nam Sung-wook, a professor at the unification and diplomacy department of South Korea's Korea University, is one of the few experts who sees the labor exports beginning soon.
Desperate to address its economic woes, North Korea might send small groups of workers to Donbas on “scouting missions” over the next few months and gradually increase the numbers depending on how the war goes, he said.
“Interests are aligning between Pyongyang and Moscow,” Nam said. “One hundred or 200 workers could eventually become 10,000.”
Qatar detains workers protesting late pay before World Cup
Qatar recently arrested at least 60 foreign workers who protested going months without pay and deported some of them, an advocacy group said, just three months before Doha hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The move comes as Qatar faces intense international scrutiny over its labor practices ahead of the tournament. Like other Gulf Arab nations, Qatar heavily relies on foreign labor. The workers' protest a week ago — and Qatar's reaction to it — could further fuel the concern.
The head of a labor consultancy investigating the incident said the detentions cast new doubt on Qatar's pledges to improve the treatment of workers. “Is this really the reality coming out?" asked Mustafa Qadri, executive director of the group Equidem.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday night, Qatar's government acknowledged that “a number of protesters were detained for breaching public safety laws.” It declined to offer any information about the arrests or any deportations.
Also read: Qatar to take more workers from Bangladesh
Video footage posted online showed some 60 workers angry about their salaries protesting on Aug. 14 outside of the Doha offices of Al Bandary International Group, a conglomerate that includes construction, real estate, hotels, food service and other ventures. Some of those demonstrating hadn't received their salaries for as many as seven months, Equidem said.
The protesters blocked an intersection on Doha’s C Ring Road in front of the Al Shoumoukh Tower. The footage matched known details of the street, including it having several massive portraits of Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, looking down on passers-by.
Al Bandary International Group, which is privately owned, did not respond to requests for comment and a telephone number registered in its name did not connect on multiple attempts to call it.
Also read: Rights group urges FIFA, Qatar to compensate WCup workers
The Qatari government acknowledged that the firm hadn't paid salaries and that its Labor Ministry would pay “all delayed salaries and benefits” to those affected.
“The company was already under investigation by the authorities for nonpayment of wages before the incident, and now further action is being taken after a deadline to settle outstanding salary payments was missed,” the government said.
Qadri said police later arrested the protesters and held them in a detention center where some described being in a stifling heat without air conditioning. Doha's temperature this week reached around 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
Qadri described police telling those held that if they can strike in hot weather, they can sleep without air conditioning.
One detained worker who called Equidem from the detention center described seeing as many as 300 of his colleagues there from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nepal and the Philippines. He said some had been paid salaries after the protest while others hadn't. His comments could not be corroborated.
Qatar, like other Gulf Arab nations, has in the past deported demonstrating foreign workers, and tied residency visas to employment. The right to form unions remains tightly controlled and available only to Qataris, as is the country's limited right to assembly, according to the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House.
Qatar, a small, energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula, is home to the state-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network. However, expression in the country remains tightly controlled. Last year, Qatar detained and later deported a Kenyan security guard who wrote and spoke publicly about the woes of the country's migrant labor force.
Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken some steps to overhaul the country's employment practices. That includes eliminating its so-called kafala employment system, which tied workers to their employers, who had say over whether they could leave their jobs or even the country.
Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers and required food and housing allowances for employees not receiving that directly from their employers.
Activists like Qadri have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers.
“Have we all been duped by Qatar over the last several years?" Qadri asked, suggesting that recent reforms might have been “a cover” for authorities allowing prevailing labor practices to continue.
The World Cup will start this November in Qatar.
Tk 24,000 demanded as minimum wage for RMG workers
Garments Sramik Front on Friday staged demonstration in the city, demanding Tk 20,000 as national minimum wage and Tk 24,000 as lowest monthly wage for the garment workers following high cost of living due to price hike of essentials.
The labour rights body, in the programme arranged in front of the National Press Club, also demanded introduction of dearness allowance for the interim period and ration at subsidized prices for the workers.
Addressing the demonstration rally, the labour leaders said Garments Sramik Front and Garment Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (G-SKOP) earlier in 2018 demanded Tk 18,000 as the minimum wage to keep consistency with the Pay Commission. But Tk 8,000 was announced as the minimum wage ignoring the demand at that time, they said.
The leaders said the prices of daily essentials have skyrocketed due to the recent fuel price-hike. Now the value of the wages of garment workers has fallen below half. The workers are struggling to survive due to malnutrition, they added.
Read: Tea garden owners propose wage hike by Tk 20 Workers now want PM's intervention
They also demanded stopping misuses of section 13 (1) of the labour law to end the oppression of workers as well as opening the ABC Knit Dyeing and Finishing Mills at Shyampur immediately to reinstate its workers in the job.
According to the section 13 (1) of Labour Act 2006, the owner can close any branch or section of a factory or other establishment partially or entirely due to illegal strike and the participant workers of the illegal strike would not get any wage in case of such shutdown of the branch or section.
President of Garments Sramik Front Ahsan Habib Bulbul presided over the rally, while its general secretary Selim Mahmud conducted it, said a press release.
Record number of Bangladeshi workers likely to go to S Korea this year: Embassy
The number of Bangladeshi workers in South Korea, recruited under the Employment Permit System (EPS), is likely to be over 3,600 this year, according to the Dhaka EPS Center.
A total of 2,594 Bangladeshi workers have already been recruited by South Korea between January and July 2022.
The government of the Republic of Korea plans to allocate over 1,000 additional quotas to Bangladesh this year to meet the increasing demand by Korean employers, said the Korean Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday.
If things go well it will be the highest number since the start of Korea’s EPS programme with Bangladesh in 2008. It was in 2010 that the highest number of Bangladesh EPS workers, 2,691, went to Korea.
The South Korean government has been recruiting unskilled foreign workers from 16 selected countries including Bangladesh through the programme called EPS.
With a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two governments, Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) has been sending Bangladesh expatriate workers to Korea since 2008.
Read: UN chief lauds Bangladesh’s socio-economic development
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, however, the South Korean government suspended admitting foreign EPS workers from March 2020 until November 2021.
With the improvement of the COVID-19 situation both in Korea and Bangladesh, the Korean government resumed taking the foreign workers in December 2021 under the strict application of quarantine measures before their departure from Bangladesh and after arrival in Korea.
Chartered direct flights between Korea and Bangladesh which initially started to carry Korean nationals during the pandemic situation have been used by Bangladesh expatriate workers going to Korea.
Since April 2022, the chartered direct flight had carried over 100 Bangladesh workers every week.
South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun has said Bangladeshi expatriate workers have been a central pillar of Korea-Bangladesh friendship and will continue to play an essential role in strengthening bilateral ties in the future.
Recognizing the BOESL’s contribution to the Korea-Bangladesh people-to-people exchange by equipping EPS workers to become suitable for their employment in Korea, Ambassador Lee also mentioned that the Embassy and the EPS Dhaka Center will work closely with BOESL not only to increase the number of workers and diversify the areas of their employment but also to prepare more qualified workers.
5 killed in Sirajganj road crash
Five workers were killed and six others injured when a truck crashed into a mini passenger vehicle on the busy Hatikumrul-Bonpara highway in Sirajganj in the early hours of Thursday.
The deceased were identified as Mukul Hossain, 35, son of Abdul Majid, Monir Hossain, 34, son of Abul Bashar, Makbul Hossain, 35, son of Jamir Uddin, Abdul Halim, 45, son of Izal Haque, and Haidar Ali, 40, son of Abdul Kuddus of Natore district.
Also read:2 primary teacher candidates killed in Chandpur road crash
All the victims were occupants of the mini passenger vehicle (locally known as Leguna).
Lutfur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Hatikumrul Highway Police, said that the accident occurred in the Ramarchar area of the district's Solonga upazila.
"The stone-laden truck crashed into the Natore-bound Leguna, leaving three dead on the spot and eight others injured," he said.
Two other injured died on the way to hospital, he added. "The other injured are being treated at different hospitals."
Road accidents in Bangladesh continue to claim hundreds of lives every year.
As many as 543 people, including 81 children, were killed and 612 others injured in 427 road accidents in April, the Road Safety Foundation said in its latest report, released on May 7.
Also read: UP member among 3 killed in Dinajpur road crash
The non-government organisation said 206 lives were lost in 189 motorcycle accidents, which is 37.93% of the total deaths. Also, 116 pedestrians and 87 drivers and their assistants were killed in March accidents.
On the other hand, accidents on waterways claimed at least eight lives while 23 were killed and five injured in train accidents across Bangladesh last month.
Barapukuria coal mine workers suspend demo after 2 months
Demonstrating workers of Barapukuria Coal Mine have suspended their two months long movement for returning to work and demanding arrears after getting partial acceptance from the authority.
Robiul Islam, President of Barapukuria Coal Mine Miners' and Workers' Union said on Friday night in a meeting the authority agreed to let the workers join work in phases.
“Regarding the payment of eight months' arrears a decision will be taken after a meeting with the workers’ representative in Petrobangla in Dhaka,” he said.
Also read: Barapukuria coal mine workers continue demo demanding arrears
“On Saturday, in the first phase 212 workers’ samples were sent for Covid-19 test. If they test negative they will be able to rejoin work after staying in quarantine for a week to 1o days inside the mine premises,” said Kamruzzaman Khan, Managing Director Engineer of Barapukuria Coal Mine.
He said all the 850 workers will be allowed to join work again.
The workers have been holding different programmes since March to press home their demands.
Robiul Islam Robi, president of Barapukuria Coal Mine Miners' and Workers' Union said,”Around 1100 local miners excavate coal from the mine under three Chinease contractor companies CMC, XMC and JXMC.”
Also read: Barapukuria Coal Mine workers give 72 hour-ultimatum for payment of arrears
Of them 700 were supposed to get monthly Tk 4,000 each as allowance during their lay off due to Covid-19 pandemic but in the last 8 months they neither received any allowances nor were allowed to rejoin work.
Meanwhile, the contracting companies forced 400 workers to stay inside the mine and work without allowing them to meet their families.
2 workers killed in Tangail mini landslide
Two workers were killed and three others injured in a landslide that occurred while they were digging a septic tank in Tangail’s Ashekpur.
The deceased were Ananda Pal, 55, of Kashil village under Basail upazila of Tangail and Akhil Pal, 40, of the same village.
The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon.
READ: Farmer shot over land feud in Tangail
According to locals, five workers were digging a septic tank for a building under construction in Indirapara area of Ashekpur. The unearthed land suddenly gave away beneath the workers’ feet, crushing Ananda and Akhil to death and injuring the remaining three.
On information, the fire service members recovered the bodies and handed them over to the police.
OC Shamim Hossain of Tangail Sadar Police Station said the bodies were sent to Tangail General Hospital morgue for autopsy.
An unnatural death case has been registered in this regard, he said.