Roundtable discussion on “Fostering the health and wellness of our workforce” held
Online Desk :
Discussion on “Fostering the health and wellness of our workforce” held at The Westin Dhaka on Wednesday.
At the roundtable discussion, Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Bangladesh said “We need to democratize the initiatives taken by the organizations and reduce barriers to accessibility of health services of our workforce”, He also stated, “Many organizations have taken the initiatives for vaccination, health, hygiene, nutrition, ergonomics, eyecare, etc., which is well appreciated, and from ILO, we want to focus more on scalability and replicating these initiatives in other factories to ensure the wellness of our workforce”, said a press release.
AYAT Education, in partnership with Integral Global and BGMEA, and supported by The John C. Martin (JCM) Foundation organized this interactive discussion on “Fostering the health and wellness of our workforce” at The Westin Dhaka. AYAT Education organized this roundtable to develop a collaborative roadmap for future initiatives in the industrial sector to ensure improved health and wellness of our workforce that directly connects with industry productivity, growth, and sustainability.
Faruque Hassan, President of BGMEA and MD of Giant Group, also echoed the point made by ILO Country Director, saying that workers’ health and wellness is BGMEA’s top priority and we have seen major changes in the RMG sector recently because of different initiatives by BGMEA and RMG factories. He added that as we navigate the challenges presented by communicable diseases, we must equip our workforce with the necessary knowledge and strategies to safeguard themselves and improve productivity.
Nabil Ahmed, Founder and Director of Integral Global, presented a keynote presentation on the activities undertaken by AYAT Education and Integral Global in three textile and 6 RMG factories with almost 30,000 workers. Because of the health education and awareness campaigns, proper mask usage by facility employees improved by 51%, and proper hand washing practices by facility employees improved significantly.
Dr. Lilian Lou, President and Program Director of the John C. Martin Foundation commented on the roundtable experience, expressing her enthusiasm for seeing major stakeholders under one roof. She also said that willpower is needed among stakeholders to make changes in the RMG factories and the community and supporting the workforce will improve productivity and the economy, creating a win-win situation for Bangladesh.
A constellation of reputed national and international experts from the RMG sector, foreign buyers’ community, public health sector, and academia joined the roundtable including Asif Ibrahim, Chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange and Director of BGMEA, Tahsin Aman, Vice Chairman of Aman Group of Industries, Syed Ishtiaq Alam, Director of Ananta Group, Ziaur Rahman, Regional Country Manager of H&M, Syed Saad Hussain Gilani, Chief Technical Advisor of ILO, Naeem Imran Salim, Managing Director of Colors & Stitches Ltd., Maashed R. Abdullah, Director & CMO of Dressmen Group, and Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, Medical Director of MedGlobal and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at University of Pennsylvania.
