Little groups of men squat on the pavements of Dhaka every day. They wait for a truck to pick them up and bring them to a construction site. The expressions on their faces are weary and resigned. May Day does not carry any significance for them. Workers in the Dhaka engage in construction of buildings for about Tk. 600-Tk 1,200 a day. If an employer has a bit of extra space to fill for the day, they’ll climb onto his truck. Otherwise, they will have to try their luck another day. The ones who find work for the day face a grim reality. After all, construction is the second deadliest sector in Bangladesh in terms of workplace safety.

A study of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) says a total of 161 construction workers died in 2018 at their workplaces. The highest number of workplace casualties last year was among transport workers as that sector recorded with 424 deaths in a year.

The study says a total of 950 construction workers have died at the workplace in the last decade, with the numbers marking an upward trend year-wise. In 2017, the number of workplace casualties in the construction sector was 134. It was 85 in 2016 and 61 in 2015. Electrocution and falling from walls and scaffolding usually caused those deaths.

Apart from this, construction workers suffer from various construction-related health hazards including breathing problems, hearing loss and skin diseases. Very few victims receive medical assistance from the company they work for.

Ramzan Ali has been working in the construction sector for nearly a decade. When this correspondent met him at a construction site in Dhanmondi, he was in his usual workplace attire—a tattered shirt, a lungi and a rolled up towel on head. Instead of these, he should have had a harness, a good protective helmet and boots with a firm grip. But he did not have any of these things, which construction firms are legally required to give their workers.

Most of the firms do not follow the rules to save money and end up neglecting the well-being of the very people who form the backbone of their business.

“I had suffered a waist injury and a leg injury while working. Now ,it is hard for me to do

heavy work. Nonetheless, I have to work on a daily basis, otherwise, my family would end up having empty stomachs,” Ramzan told The Independent.

Ramzan got helmets on some construction sites. But most of them old and ill-fitting, while boots are not of good quality. “Each worker is aware of the risks associated with the job. We get scared when we hear about other workers’ deaths. But we don’t have an option: we have to keep working without safety equipment,” he said.

The construction sector, which mostly relies on unorganised labour from people like Ramzan, is one of Bangladesh’s biggest job providers, with nearly 3.5 million working in the real estate industry. The country has seen a construction boom in recent years as incomes rise and cities expand.

But the industry mostly attracts migrant workers from villages who move to towns and cities due to a lack of jobs in their own areas. For any labourer refusing to work without proper safety equipment, there will be 100 others willing to take the job. So, construction firms can hire and fire on their own whims.

Workers in the construction industry are also poorly trained because their employers know that they can be easily replaced.