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Bangladesh ’ s Cabinet has approved in principle the draft of Bangladesh Labour Act ( Amendment ) Bill , 2018 with several key changes – which the authorities said will be favouring the 3.6 million workforce greatly .
The approval was given at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Chair , Cabinet Secretary Md Shafiul Alam said in a postmeeting press briefing . “ The draft bill has been prepared and
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updated following the observation of International Labour Organization ( ILO ).”
Following the briefing , State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque held another press briefing where he said the draft law would be placed before the cabinet for a complete approval and tabled into the Parliament for passing .
The law proposes :
• Reduced punishment for workers ;
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• 20 per cent signatory for trade union ;
• Child labour ban ; allow work from 14 and above ;
• Increased compensation for death .
The law banned child labour in the draft law and allowed 14-yearold and above to carry out ‘ light activities ’ in the factories . Under the current law , 12-year-old children are allowed to do ‘ light work ’. Now , nobody under 14 can be employed at factories . Violation will cost the employer a fine of BDT 5,000 .
Currently , workers need the signature of 30 per cent of the population of a factory to form a trade union . A new provision included in the law allows a trade union with 20 per cent signatories . Also , the prevailing provision of a strike with two-third of support has been cut down . Now workers can carry a strike with 51 per cent of the worker support .
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The proposed draft law has the provision of BDT 2.5 lakh compensation for workers who have sustained permanent damage to the level of being unable to work – which is double that of the compensation amount carried in the present law . Also , the compensation for death at workplace has been doubled to BDT 2.5 lakh .
With regard to agitation in workplace , the punishment of a worker has been halved to 6 months ; what is currently 1 year , for imposing illegal strike . However , the fine of BDT 5,000 will prevail as usual . The punishment for unacceptable behaviour has also been halved down to 1 year .
Additionally , from what Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam said , the proposed law has ensured protection for pregnant women workers and punishment to employers for its violation .
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The Bangladesh Government has reportedly decided to put in place a time-bound action plan to ensure completion of remediation work of readymade garment manufacturing units that have been inspected under the Government-led and International Labour Organisationsupported initiative by the year 2021 . |
This was reportedly disclosed by the Inspector General of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments ( DIFE ) Md Shamsuzzaman Bhuiyan to the media after a workshop on RCC ( Remediation Coordination Cell ) governance and future of industrial safety unit , in which the Government reportedly adopted |
proposals to fast-track and complete pending remediation of RMG factories inspected under the national initiative by June , 2021 .
“ At the workshop , we have finalised a time-bound action plan for completing factory remediation , escalation protocol and RCC indicators ,” reportedly maintained Bhuiyan .
The workshop further decided to extend the tenure of the RCC from one to three years .
As per the proposal made at the workshop , the RCC would continue up to June 2021 , and after completing factory remediation within the timeframe , the cell would evolve into an industrial safety unit , reportedly maintained Bhuiyan . He further
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added that as per court ’ s directive , Accord and Alliance would have to leave Bangladesh by the year-end following which the Government would take up monitoring of Accord- and Alliance-listed factories .
“ Of the factories listed by the platforms , units in which remediation is completed would be transferred to the DIFE and the rest of the units would be referred to the RCC for the next course of action ,” underlined the Inspector General of DIFE .
Apart from DIFE , BGMEA , BKMEA , representatives from Labour Ministry , Fire Service and Civil Defence , Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety amongst others reportedly attended the workshop .
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