Arbitration a must before going to labour court

Syful Islam | Published: June 28, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The government is going to make it mandatory for both employees and employers to try to settle their individual-level disputes through arbitration before going to court.
The move is meant for quick resolution of disputes outside the legal system under the auspices of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies in the country's industrial units to avoid the logjam of cases.
A draft law on the proposed ADR body has been prepared by Syed Sultan Ahmed, assistant executive director of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), in consultation with labour-law experts and labour leaders. The draft on the ADR would be finalised in a month, Mr Ahmed said.
According to the draft, only individual-level disputes like those on wages, payment for working overtime, compensation and other payment-related disagreements will be resolved through the ADR bodies. No industrial disputes will be entertained by the same.
The Bangladesh Labour Law has to be amended to incorporate the ADR system. Once it is done, the government will form an adequate number of districtwise or areawise ADR committees to resolve the disputes.Â Â Â
An ADR committee should comprise three people, headed by a former district judge. Of the two others, one will be owners' representative and another from workers' side.
Any aggrieved party -- owner or worker -- should apply first to a labour inspector in a prescribed form, which the inspector will forward
to an ADR committee for conciliation. The ADR committee will begin the arbitration within ten days of receiving the application and serve notices on both parties to attend a meeting on time on a specific date.
If any party fails to attend the conciliation meeting despite receiving the notice, they will face punitive action under Section 301 of the penal code.Â Â
If a dispute is resolved through conciliation unanimously, the decision has to be followed by all parties without fail. If any of them violates the decision and the aggrieved party files a case with the labour court, the court will take action against the transgressor under sections 292 and, or 293 of the penal code.
When contacted Mr Ahmed told the FE, there were only seven labour courts across the country where thousands of cases had been remaining pending for long.
"Such a number of courts are inadequate to resolve disputes of 50 million workers in the country," he said.
Mr Ahmed said the ADR system would help resolve disputes outside court. Both workers and factory owners would benefit as it would quickly resolve the disagreements through discussion.
"Our conciliation system is helpful for all. Even the judges, before beginning case procedures, can ask lawyers of the parties to try to resolve the disputes outside court," he said.
Countries like England, Singapore and Malaysia have introduced their ADR systems and reaped good results in dispute resolution.
"Both the factory owners and workers have expressed interest in the ADR system. So, the government has moved forward to introduce the system," Mr Ahmed said.
Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Shahidullah Azim has told the FE that the BGMEA has five arbitration teams to resolve disputes between owners and workers.
The teams resolve over a thousand disputes a year, which helps both owners and workers avert the toils of the legal system, he has said.
Welcoming the government's move to introduce ADR, Mr Azim said the outside-court conciliation would also help both the parties save money as well.
President of the United Garment Workers' Federation Nazma Akter said workers were always favouring an amicable solution to any dispute instead of going to court.
"But when owners disagree to resolve any dispute through discussion, they have no options but to go to court," she said.
Ms Akter also welcomed the move but said the government should ensure an adequate number of ADR committees in industrial belts so that the disputes could be disposed of quickly.
She observed that the absence of an adequate number of such committees or bodies sometimes could be a headache for the people.