Tannery workers place 10-point demand on health safety 

Representatives of tannery workers placed a 10-point demand at a programme in the capital, asking employers and other stakeholders to ensure occupational safety, eco-friendly standards, and the overall modernisation of tanneries, says a press release.

If workers' rights are ignored the country's tanneries will not thrive they said, emphasising quick modernisation of the industry to ensure worker and environmental safety. 

They urged to get most factories certified by the Leather Working Group, an influential global organisation on environmental impact.

The Tannery Workers' Union and Solidarity Center Bangladesh jointly organised the coalition building and advocacy meeting at a city hotel on Sunday.

Tannery Workers' Union President, Abul Kalam Azad, and General Secretary of Bangladesh Trade Union Centre, Dr Wajedul Islam Khan, were present at the programme. From Solidarity Center Bangladesh, Program Officer Mohammad Nazrul Islam and Country Program Director AKM Nasim were present.

The 10-point recommendation raised in the keynote were: Taking quick and effective steps to implement all labour law provisions, forming safety committees and strengthening inspection and other practices to improve the occupational safety of workers, establishing a 50-bed hospital in the Tannery Industrial Estate in Savar, ensuring full maternity welfare benefits, ensuring social compliance and development of an eco-friendly, modern, tannery industrial estate by establishing a full-fledged common effluent treatment plant (CETP) to progress towards certification by the Leather Working Group, implementing the government-backed minimum wage structure in every factory, stopping the dismissal of skilled and experienced workers, preventing employment through illegal contractors, restoring the tannery industry as a formal working sector, and preventing interference in the process of joining unions.

In his address, Dr Wajedul Islam Khan said, "In every sector in our country, we have formed a lot of committees but we cannot maintain the consistency of work. We need to be careful about that first".

AKM Nasim of Solidarity Center Bangladesh said, "Our work is aimed at realising the demands of workers and ensuring their rights. It is necessary to form alliances for that." 

"It is to be applauded that many employers now agree on workers' rights but many still oppose all rights of workers. [As such] There is no alternative to working as a coalition to bring about change", he observed.