Editorial
Murder of an RMG worker
Image of the industry under further clouds
One might well suggest that the garments sector in Bangladesh is under some strain. The murder of a worker and a severe inflicting of injuries to another at Vertex Fashion Ltd on Wednesday is but the latest instance of how precarious remain the conditions in which RMG employees work in certain units. The angry demonstrations which erupted in Mirpur on Friday, while understandable, are also a reflection of what certain garment unit owners as a matter of routine fail to do to keep the sector going. If indeed the two men had been suspected of committing theft, the simplest thing would be for them to be handed over to the law enforcers. Dispensing with such action and instead settling for brutality verging on the medieval by subjecting them to severe beating, the security personnel have brought into question the reputation of the industry they belong to. One has to see whether their action reflected any attitude on the part of their owners or higher officials.
The factory authorities have announced a compensation package of Taka 5,00,000 for the family of the dead worker Mohammad Khokon and an additional Taka 25,000 for the injured. While such an act can be seen as an attempt at damage control, the bigger question here is why such criminality as beating up the two men and in the end killing one of them was resorted to. No degree of compensation can fill the terrible vacuum that has now descended on the families of the victims. At another level, the incident only serves to undermine further the efforts that have been made in recent months for normalcy to come into the working of the garments sector. One cannot forget the organised vandalism that a few months ago created havoc in the RMG sector, a situation that left employers, workers and the government concerned. Let us not forget that the sector happens to be one out of which the nation continues to derive considerable economic advantages. But with the kind of lawlessness and the blunders at the garments units, it is only reasonable to imagine that soon the RMG sector could be pushed to a slide from where it might find it difficult to claw back. Besides, there is the matter of the intense competition worldwide for garments products, a reality that demands a constant national focus on how best we can sustain our garments sector and allow it to flourish.
Meaningful action in the Vertex Fashion incident, through identifying and punishing under the law those responsible for the death of Mohammad Khokon is called for. We expect our RMG workers to remain disciplined. At the same time, we expect that RMG owners will upgrade their working conditions, enough to make people believe that their employees will be safe in their care.
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