"Rana Plaza: work injury compensation still missing in Bangladesh’s labour standards", 23 November 2018

In the five years since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh...a variety of strategies have been developed to improve labour conditions and prevent another such disaster. The most prominent of these efforts are private programmes to inspect and upgrade factory buildings where government safety regulations have fallen short.

Much less attention has been paid to another approach to improving labour standards that could have a big impact in Bangladesh: workers’ compensation.

Workers’ compensation is the payment of cash benefits to injured workers or the families of those killed on the job. Though these payments are minimal – usually covering only lost wages and costs of medical care – workers’ compensation ensures that occupational injuries do not result in secondary health problems and destitution...

Today, the Bangladesh labour movement and its supporters are pushing for the adoption of a national employment injury insurance system to guarantee workers’ compensation that is automatic, fair and meets international standards.