Workers in construction, recognised as a “risky and labour-intensive” sector, face irregularities in the recruitment process, which lead to poor working and living conditions and inadequate social protection, said a study conducted by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).
Though nearly 2 million people are involved in this sector and its contribution to GDP was 8.2% in 2014-15, the study revealed that principal employers prefer to engage middlemen in recruiting workers to the sector, which raises risks and dangers to the workers.
The study was made public yesterday at the capital’s Cirdap Auditorium at a workshop organised by RMMRU and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS).
The study also said construction workers are easily swayed by middlemen to agree to take on the low-paying job so as to ensure cash flow for their families.
This is why employers find attractive the existing recruitment system of working with middlemen.
The existence of the intermediaries in labour recruitment however is not legally acknowledged. Also, their role does not allow the state to tackle the workers’ concerns. This enables the intermediaries to work outside the purview of the state, and their day-to-day operations and associated malpractice puts the workers’ lives beyond the state’s capacity to monitor.
According to the study, construction workers are neither paid the official minimum wage, nor paid for overtime, and never get any weekends.
It shows the sector and its workers to be perhaps one of the least monitored in Bangladesh.
