The government is going to set up another legal aid cell, dedicated for workers only, within a couple of months aiming to take free legal services to their doorsteps, officials have said.
"The second Labour Legal Aid Cell (LLAC) will be established in the port city Chittagong where many workers, especially in the shipping industry, remain unrepresented for long," a government official said.
In May, 2013, the government, for the first time, set up such a cell named LLAC in Dhaka under the National Legal Aid Services Organisation (NLASO) to help the workers get legal remedy for any violation of their rights.
"Considering success of this cell in Dhaka, the government has recently taken a decision to launch another LLAC in Chittagong," the official said.
When contacted, LLAC's law officer Moshiur Rahman Chowdhury told the FE, "We are expecting that another LLAC will be set up in the port city within June-July next."
Workers in Chittagong and Sylhet will get free legal services from this cell, he added.
The LLAC, inaugurated immediately after the Rana Plaza disaster, received good response from the workers, most of whom are from the readymade garment (RMG) industry. It provides different types of free services.
The services include legal suggestions, out of court settlement, sending grievance notices to employers on behalf of the workers, appointing advocates from its lawyers' panel and instant suggestion services at the hotline cell phone number 01761-222224 etc.
The LLAC's law officer said since May 2013 until March 2015 he settled disputes of around 77 workers, including 8 women, out of court.
About 334 workers, including 37 females, got verbal suggestions from the cell during the two-year period, Mr Chowdhury said.
The cell drafted and sent grievance notices to around 327 workers, of whom 69 are women, on behalf of them to their employers, he said adding that it also filed cases for 155 workers including 18 women with the labour court.
Out of the cases, seven have already been settled by the court; of them, two are of the female workers, Mr Chowdhury said.
Apart from those services, 1,504 workers, including 349 women, have got legal suggestions from the cell over its hotline cell-phone.
Talking to this correspondent, some workers' leaders recently said many of them are still unaware of the free legal aid services.
"As a result, they could not avail the services," one of the leaders said adding that they are to face hassles in moving before the labour court.
Mr Rahman, however, said they provide LLAC's leaflets to each of workers when they come to the cell to disseminate the information among their colleagues.
The cell, he added, also hung separate billboards displaying its free legal services in Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj.
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