FE Report
Rights groups on Saturday demanded further amendment to the country's labour law for removing a number of repressive provisions and making it worker-friendly.
The labour leaders also alleged that the rights of workers have gradually been squeezing with each of the amendments to the labour law as the workers' representatives failed to play their due role in the process.
The demands and observations came at a national labour convention on "Identifying Inconsistencies in Existing Labour Laws" organised by IndustriALL Bangladesh Council in the city.
The rights groups and labour leaders made a number of demands, including redefining the definition of workers and bringing the export processing zones (EPZs) and special economic zones under the jurisdiction of the labour law by scraping the EPZ labour act.
The labour leaders demanded incorporating an independent clause related to casual leave and sick leave in the labour act as the existing procedures for leave in the act is only applicable for annual leave.
They also demanded amendment to termination-related provision. In case of resignation of workers from his/her service, the continuation of service should be one year instead of the present five years for getting compensation from employer.
Their other demands included reducing the membership threshold for trade union registration to 10 per cent, easing the procedure to ensure participation of workers in the profit of companies, increasing the maternity leave to six months from existing four months and allow trade union federations for receiving financial assistance from external sources.
"The rights of workers have been squeezing with every amendment to the law as the government and the owners have strong tie up," said Razekuzzaman Ratan, general secretary of Samajtantrik Sramik Front.
He demanded for a democratic labour act and urged all rights groups to organise a tough movement to achieve the goal.
There were many inconsistencies in the labour law and the government should address the issues, said Chowdhury Ashikul Alam, general secretary of Bangladesh Trade Union Sangha.
He said that the government has taken an initiative to amend labour rules and the trade union leaders should look into the issue so that the employers cannot include any clause in the rules that would be harmful for the workers.
Bangladesh would have to maintain labour standards strictly to continue duty-free market access in European Union in the coming days as the country is going to be graduated to middle income country from least developed one, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
He suggested devising Standard Operating Procedure for the labour courts to reduce the case backlog.
Sirajul Ialam Roni, president of Bangladesh Garment Workers-Employees League, said that there were many instruments in the labour act to deprive the workers.
"The labour act is being used against the interest of the workers day by day as we are divided," he said.
The basic payment of garment workers had been reduced in the wage board since 2010, said Nazma Akter, president of Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation.
She demanded 60 per cent of the gross salary as basic pay for garment workers and six-month of maternity leave for the women workers.
IBC chairman Gias Uddin, its secretary general Salahuddin Shapon, former IBC president Amirul Haque Amin and former secretary Towhidur Rahman, among others, spoke at the event.
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