The government has finalised a draft response to the complaints against it over the violation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, officials said.
A number of countries filed the complaints at the International Labour Conference (ILC) held in Geneva in June this year.
Labour and law ministries and stakeholders have jointly finalised the response that includes the recent progress in amending the labour law.
The law conforms to the ILO conventions to avert the situation for forming a commission of inquiry against the country, they said.
The response would be sent to ILO before its next governing body meeting scheduled for next March, a labour ministry official said.
At the concluding ILC session, worker delegates of Italy, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil and Japan suggesting forming such a commission.
Bangladesh was not following ILO convention 87 on freedom of association and right to organise, convention 98 on right to bargain collectively and convention 81 on labour inspection, they alleged.
In the draft response, the government assured ILO of taking necessary steps for a gradual reform in the labour sector, terming the reform a continuous process.
Over labour rights issue, the draft said amendments to labour law were made on the basis of a tripartite consensus and ILO was actively involved in the process.
Importance was given to workers' welfare, rights and safety, industrial safety and expansion, transparency in trade union registration and wage payment system, and promoting trade unionism and collective bargaining.
About the alleged imposition of tougher terms for trade union registration, the government said the registration process is clearly spelled out in the law and there is no case of arbitrary refusal.
Regarding criminal charges against workers and labour leaders in 2016 and 2018, the draft said the issues of 2016 and 2018 to 2019 were different.
In 2016, workers wanted to create unrest in industrial area for their personal interest.
In 2018, they started acts of vandalism and arson, rejecting the newly announced wages for them.
During wage protest, factory managements lodged 15 cases against workers in Ashulia and Savar for vandalism inside and outside factories and all cases were not criminal cases, it explained.
On another allegation, it said workers in Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have the right to form Workers Welfare Association and the right to collective bargaining.
EPZs workers are more protected and facilitated as well as getting more benefits under existing EPZ laws, rules and regulations and provisions, the draft explained.
Collective bargaining agents were actively performing their activities at EPZs with full freedom and in the past five years such associations within EPZs had submitted 521 demands.
All those were negotiated successfully, it claimed.
The draft further said that the provision of inspections by chief inspectors along with others under Bangladesh Labour Act have been incorporated in the new Bangladesh EPZ Labour Act 2019.
The DIFE and BEPZA are in discussion to way out better coordination, it concluded.
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