Photo: Collected
After a long Eid holiday, industries reopened in full swing but the presence of workers has dropped significantly as they are getting ill due to the ongoing countrywide intense heatwave.
Industry insiders think workers’ presence has fallen by 10-15 per cent and productivity also decreased by 25 per cent due to the unbearable heatwave.
A supervisor of Ananta Apparels Ltd told The Daily Messenger “Yes, workers’ presence has dropped than earlier in summer due to heat. Moreover, a significant number of workers have applied for sick leave.”
An owner of a garment factory located in the Narayanganj area said the ongoing heatwave has impacted his factory's production as many workers have declined to work overtime. “Some workers fell sick, and they had to seek medical treatment.”
Fazlul Haque, vice president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), told The Daily Messenger, “Production has dropped by 25 per cent as the absence of workers increased by 10-15 per cent. We are providing the workers with lemon juice and saline.”
“The workers at the factories that do not have chillers are especially suffering more. Moreover, we are not getting an adequate amount of power and gas. This results in load-shedding, which makes workers ill,” he added.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President SM Mannan Kochi said that though the temperature is increasing due to the heatwave, apparel factories are trying to maintain cool environments to keep production normal.
He said workers at some of the factories that do not have enough power supply are suffering due to the heatwave but the giant ones have arrangements to keep the indoor environment normal.
According to officials from the production departments at several factories in Gazipur and Dhamrai, despite the high temperature outside due to the heatwave, the working environment inside the factories remains normal. Workers’ presence is sufficient as the factories have exhaust fans, ceiling fans, and other cooling systems.
Experts called for declaring heatwaves a disaster and providing humanitarian assistance to the families who have lost members due to extreme heat.
They also called for the inclusion of heat issues in climate change-related policies and plans, the promotion of adaptative social protection for heat-stressed areas, and the consideration of heat management as part of environmental compliance in the Bangladesh Labour Act.
Professor Dr Tawhidul Islam, director of the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS at Jahangirnagar University, said that due to heatwaves, workers can lose up to 25 per cent of the total working hours.
Dr SM Morshed, vice chairperson of the Bangladesh OSHE Foundation, said Bangladesh could lose apparel export earnings of nearly $27 billion and also 0.25 million jobs by 2030 due to extreme heat. He also added that Dhaka is losing $6 billion worth of labour productivity, amounting to 8 per cent of the annual labour output in Dhaka, each year due to heat stress from extreme temperatures.
Messenger/Disha
