Law Reform
Current labour law and ILO standard
The Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 was adopted on 15 July 2013. The amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 will hopefully prove to be the first step towards fulfilling the Government's obligation to respect the fundamental rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining and to address the critical need to bolster occupational safety and health. Bangladesh has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining and thus is required to protect the rights contained therein. The conformity of the amended legislation with international labour standards ratified by Bangladesh will be reviewed by the ILO supervisory machinery later in the year.
An initial review suggests that the amendments did address some of the ILO's specific concerns, while falling short of several important steps called for by the ILO supervisory system to bring the law into conformity with ratified international labour standards.
Several provisions to improve workplace safety have now been included in the law. Since Bangladesh has only ratified category or sector specific Conventions on OSH not directly related to the Labour Act, the specific steps taken in this area and detailed below can only be welcomed. However the country is encouraged to ratify the key international labour standards on OSH policy, namely Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (no. 187) and Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (no.155).
Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
The ILO has not yet received an official version and translation of the final amendments adopted. Based on an unofficial translation, it appears that the amendments take several steps called for by the ILO. They eliminate the previous obligation to send to employers the names of union leaders at the time of registration of a trade union at the factory or federation level. They will allow workers to call on outside experts for advice during collective bargaining. In the public industrial sector, workers will now be allowed to elect 10 percent of their enterprise officers from outside the workplace, although this right is not extended to workers in the private sector.
A number of restrictions to workers' freedom of association rights which have been the subject of ILO concerns were not addressed by the amendments. For example, major areas that remain to be addressed include the reduction of the 30 per cent minimum membership requirement to form a union. The amendments also do not extend freedom of association and collective bargaining rights to workers in export processing zones.
Workplace safety and health
Several provisions to improve workplace safety have now been included in the law, such as creation of safety committees in factories with 50 workers or more. The labour inspectorate will be given new responsibilities to inspect safety and health conditions of workplaces and conduct on-the-spot inspections. Personal safety equipment will now be required. Provisions now require the establishment of workplace Health Centres in workplaces with over 5000 employees and safety welfare officers in workplaces with more than 500.
Under the amendments compensation for work-related deaths will be provided after two years in employment, compared to the current three years. Workplaces of over 500 employers will be required to arrange for and cover the cost of treatment of occupational diseases.
Other fundamental rights
With regard to ratified Conventions covering other fundamental rights, the amendments did not prohibit discrimination in employment or remuneration, as called for by the ILO supervisory system. The law was not amended to prohibit debt bondage by children nor to ensure that compulsory labour cannot be used as a punishment for breaches of labour discipline or violations of provisions restricting the right to strike.
Next steps on cooperation
The Government of Bangladesh should take further steps necessary to fulfill its obligations under ratified conventions. The government should start to work with urgency on the regulations required to implement the amendments and to build the capacity of the labour inspectorate to assume its new responsibilities.
Source: www.hrea.org.
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