Workplace safety: Factory workers protest colleague’s death

Demand immediate arrest of factory owner.

FAISALABAD:

Colleagues of a powerloom factory worker who died from an electric shock earlier on Tuesday staged a demonstration against the factory owner on Tuesday by blocking Faisalabad-Jaranwala road with the body.

Police say Muhammad Irfan of Layyah had worked in a powerloom factory on Jaranwala Road where he received an electric shock from a defective fan. Irfan fainted and died without receiving any medical attention.

Factory workers, angered by the lack of safety, protested against the family owner holding him responsible for the electrocution.

They demanded his immediate arrest.



Ghulam Fareed, one of the protestors, said “the factory fan had been out of order for the last three months. We repeatedly requested the factory owner to get it changed or removed but he did not.”

A police team headed by Saddar SHO removed the protestors from Faisalabad-Jaranwala Road by force.

“They have no justification to block the road over the death of a factory worker. So we pushed them away and opened the road for vehicular traffic,” the SHO said, adding that “the police will take action against whoever causes inconvenience to travelers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2013.