Narrator:
 Few of these workers are local men from Chittagong or Dhaka - one worker told us that only men from poorer districts are prepared to do this kind of work. But what rights do they have far from home?

sequence of role call - leave sound up

Narrator:
 None, is the answer from the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies which says they have no regular employment, appointment letters, job security, benefits or unions.

Nazrul Khan
 Executive Director: Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies
 The workers in the shipbreaking yards, because they are suffering a lot, are definitely interested in establishing a union. But the employers in those areas, most of them are local people who belong to the locality and they are quite powerful people in the locality. They don't allow people to go there and organise unions. There are examples of some people - even without establishing a union - they were trying to project [express] their grievances and those people were beaten and they lost their jobs. So the situation is not favourable to unions.

Mohamed Mohsin
 Managing Director: PHP Shipbreaking and Re-Cycling Industries
 "To tell the truth, unions tried to come. They came many times, talked to the labourers, but all the labourers are saying: I am working hard, why should I talk to you. As we have seen in other trade unions that have been working in this country, every factory that has a trade union, they are not working now. I can give you many examples. If you have trade union, they just come up with the demands, they don't do the work. They come up with their demands, they don't do the work."

Narrator:
 Who then takes care of the workers? What is the employers responsibilities? And how much do they contribute to the workers' welfare?