Even if the number of registered trade unions in the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) sector has risen significantly over the years — as per official figures there were only 132 registered trade unions in 2012 which rose to 945 until August 2020 — but not their activities, claimed media reports.
The report underlined that despite significant increase in registered trade unions in the Bangladesh’s apparel sector in last 7 years, industry insiders alleged most of these are non-functional!
The Government at the 340th session of the governing body of International Labour Organization (ILO), reportedly, provided the figures related to the trade unions while adding that 37 per cent of the unions applied for registrations in the RMG sector were rejected in 2014 and that rejection rate was 45 per cent, 33 per cent and 30 per cent in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively, media reports maintained.
However, even as the success rate of union registration has gone up after the Government had adopted the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in 2017, underlined concerned officials to the media, adding that the legal changes to simplify the union registration process also encouraged many to apply, labour leaders alleged that despite the significant rise in union numbers, each year a good number of registration applications were rejected on various grounds.
What’s more! Registered unions in many factories have no existence at present; they, reportedly, claimed while highlighting that after the Rana Plaza incident, registration of trade unions increased mainly due to the global pressure.