HRW for steps to protect workers\\\' right

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday said Bangladesh government should stop garment factory owners from intimidating and threatening workers for organising trade unions, and prosecute those responsible for attacks on labour leaders. The New York-based international rights body also said foreign buyers, including major US and European retailers, should ensure that their Bangladeshi suppliers respect labour rights. The HRW interviewed 47 workers in 21 factories in and around Dhaka. The workers claimed that some managers intimidate and mistreat employees involved in setting up unions, including threatening to kill them. Some union organisers said they were beaten up, and others said they had lost their jobs or had been forced to resign. Factory owners sometimes used local gangsters to threaten or attack workers outside the workplace, including at their homes, they said. It placed three sets of recommendations for the government, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and international apparel brands. The rights watchdog asked the government to effectively enforce the labour law and amend it to comply with international standards, ensure workers’ rights to form unions and increase factory inspections and investigate allegations against factory owners who engage in anti-union activity. It also recommended the government to investigate all the allegations of beatings, threats, and abuse of workers and prosecute those responsible. The HRW urged the BGMEA to support the establishment of independent trade unions in members’ factories and discourage the setting up of so-called “yellow factories”. In its recommendations to international apparel brands, the rights body said the brands need to encourage Bangladeshi factories to protect worker rights, improve factory inspections and publish findings to ensure factories comply with brands’ codes of conduct and the Bangladesh Labour Law. The rights body also asked the international brands to immediately join the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord, a legally-binding agreement that seeks to involve factory workers in ensuring the safety of factories, according to UNB.