Bangladesh Garment Factories
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/300-bangladesh-garment-factories-may-be-unsafe/
Summary of Article
- consistently built without engineers being consulted
- not designed to withstand heavy manufacturing (i.e, floors that were supposed to have 5 support bars only had 2)
- illegal extra floors added in many plants- support beams unable to hold floors properly (i.e, one building that was only approved for 6 floors had 10 floors built)
- of 200 factories, 10% forced to shut down'
- over 300 factories in total deemed unsafe by government
- CBS news found that most factories had majority of workers under 18 years of age
- dangerous conditions include very few fire extinguishers, employees being sprayed by Potassium Permanganate (toxic- damages nervous system), many workers weren't wearing protective clothing
- very rare that buildings had structural tests when they were initially built
- 200 factories initially inspected, 20 shut down- between 200-300 suspected to be vulnerable
Human Rights Articles Violated
Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
This article violates this due to the fact that the safety precautions that have been overlooked while building unsafe buildings (i.e, the lack of support bars used in rooms and the additional floors that have been built without consulting engineers) put all workers at risk of life, as well as depleting the security that they should have for working in a safe work environment.
Article 23: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
Although this is not completely violated, the favourable conditions of work aspect is completely violated throughout this article. The conditions of the majority of the Bangladesh garment factories are those of hazard, many not structurally tested when initially built, and many that are not even designed to withstand the heavy manufacturing that happens within the workplace and all around it. These conditions are not favourable, and put the workers, as well as the rest of the community living around the factories at risk.
As well, through further research workers have been documented while they are working, and many videos have been taken of workers being beaten and ridiculed while they are working in harsh conditions. This completely violates the "human dignity" aspect of the article as they are utterly degrading workers on film, and publically displaying this cruel harassment on the internet, depleting their means of "social protection."
Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Although within the article it does not directly state that this has been violated, I did further research on the conditions of these factories and came across the fact that the workers there (most of them young children) are forced to work 11-13 hour days. The workers are paid unfairly, one article stating that they only receive 30 euros per month for their work. (Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/06/bangladesh-garment-factories-child-labour-uk)
This article violates this due to the fact that the safety precautions that have been overlooked while building unsafe buildings (i.e, the lack of support bars used in rooms and the additional floors that have been built without consulting engineers) put all workers at risk of life, as well as depleting the security that they should have for working in a safe work environment.
Article 23: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
Although this is not completely violated, the favourable conditions of work aspect is completely violated throughout this article. The conditions of the majority of the Bangladesh garment factories are those of hazard, many not structurally tested when initially built, and many that are not even designed to withstand the heavy manufacturing that happens within the workplace and all around it. These conditions are not favourable, and put the workers, as well as the rest of the community living around the factories at risk.
As well, through further research workers have been documented while they are working, and many videos have been taken of workers being beaten and ridiculed while they are working in harsh conditions. This completely violates the "human dignity" aspect of the article as they are utterly degrading workers on film, and publically displaying this cruel harassment on the internet, depleting their means of "social protection."
Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Although within the article it does not directly state that this has been violated, I did further research on the conditions of these factories and came across the fact that the workers there (most of them young children) are forced to work 11-13 hour days. The workers are paid unfairly, one article stating that they only receive 30 euros per month for their work. (Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/06/bangladesh-garment-factories-child-labour-uk)
Discussion Question
Do you feel as though it is too late for the government to step in and finally take a stand when it comes to workplace security and protecting the rights of its citizens?