Experts and pro-worker bodies have called upon the Bangladesh Government to reconsider the minimum participation threshold for registration of trade unions in the readymade garments industry saying that it is still a standard too high to meet.
“The condition of the 20 percent votes in the biennial general meetings is not possible to fulfil for the trade unions for registration under the proposed new act. So, their registration will be cancelled ultimately.As the workers are little aware of their rights, the law is likely to favour the factory owners,” said AKM Nasim, a specialist of labour law.
He was speaking at a round table discussion “Labour Act 2018: expectation and attainment– responsibility of stakeholders” organised by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) held at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh, recently.
The labour law was originally framed in 2006 to protect workers’ rights and to increase productivity in the industrial units, which was eventually amended in 2013. The last amendment, made earlier this year, brought down the mandatory participation for registration of trade unions to 20 per cent from the previous 30 per cent.
Hameeda Hossain, a noted human rights activist in Bangladesh, alleged, although the law stipulates four-month maternity leave, the amendment of the law will not safeguard the job of female workers. “It is not clear whether the law allows the maternity leave as a leave without pay or as termination from the factory. This clause should be corrected to ensure the rights of the female workers before being passed in the parliament.”
Also, she came down hard on the government for incorporating a compensation of only BDT 200,000 in case of death at workplace. “The price of a worker’s life is only BDT 2 lakh? This is inhuman – the owners do not want to give nothing. The compensation sum must be increased.”
Razekuzzaman Ratan, General Secretary of Samajtantrik Sramik Front, a pro-worker organisation, alleged that the government officials involved in drafting the amendment, hardly cared about the workers and worked to protect the interests of the factory owners.
Gagan Rajbhandari, Deputy Country Director of International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Bangladesh, said the proposed amendment to the labour law did not reflect the set of recommendations proposed by the ILO. “The minimum number of participation now will be fruitless in case of large factories.”
Md Zafrul Hassan, executive director and joint secretary general of BILS, said the institution will place a set of recommendations to the parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment before passing of the bill in parliament to include their points – which will, they say, be to protect the interests of the workers.
Among others present in the programme were Mujibar Rahman Bhuiyan, Vice Chairman of BILS; Md Shahidullah Chowdhury, member of advisory committee of BILS; and Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmad, South Asia labour law specialist.