LAW GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Rights of Labour in Bangladesh

Assigned By,

Anika Rafah (Arf2)

Lecturer, Department of Law

North South University

Submitted by:

Name Student ID
Jubaer Islam 1921654630
Debobrata Das 1921010630
Sheikh Maruf Sikder 1912892630
Md. Tanvir Rahman 1921633030
Abeer Binte Ahsan 1921171030

Date of Submission: 06th January,2021

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Who are Labours? 3
3. Basic Labour Rights 4
3.1. Healthy workplace environment: 4
3.2. Working hour and Wage equality: 4
3.3. No discrimination in the workplace: 5
3.4. Maternity benefit: 5
3.5. Family & Medical leave: 5
3.6. Safety of the labours: 6
3.7. Death compensation: 6
4. Current Situation of Labours in Bangladesh: 6
4.1. Safety Measures: 6
4.2.Gender inequality: 7
4.3. Wages and Working Hour: 8
4.4. Holidays and Medical leaves: 9
4.5.Health Hygiene 9
5.How to overcome Current Labour problems 10
6. Conclusion 11
7. Bibliography 12
1. Introduction
Labour Law implies the laws and customs of the state by which the employer's relationship is
formed. In order to secure stability in the industrial arena, labour is controlled. The society where
the central object of labour law is to establish an exclusive arrangement between capital and labour
is a compilation of contemporary labour law. Bangladesh is a country where the maximum
population is labour. They earn their livelihood by working as a labour. The labours are an asset
for every country. In our country the labour force is one of the most important force. Almost
58.99% labour force participation rate was reported in the year 2019 according to the World Bank.
For this reason, the Government of Bangladesh has given the labours many rights. But it is a
matter of great sorrow that the rights of labours are violated in our country. There are several
incidents that shows how the basic rights of labour are not met. In this report we are going to
discuss the basic rights of labours in Bangladesh, present issues related to labour rights, and
preventive measures taken to solve these problems. The Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, the final
amendment of which came into effect in 2013, is in fact an amalgamation of changes to previous
laws. It has been initiated to improve worker rights and their general condition with the aid of
several domestic and foreign organizations, ensuring a safe environment, fair wages and well-
being.

2. Who are Labours?

A labourer is a person who works in manual forms of labour, particularly in the workforce of the
building and factory industries. Labourers are in a community of wage-earners in which their
labour is the proletariat, their sole possession of substantial material worth..They are most likely
to work under employers for earning a livelihood. They mostly work in factories and construction
sites. The labour relationship is the area of expertise that can be used by employers and union
officials to mitigate expensive types of confrontation and to achieve win-win outcomes for the
labour force. If the company can partner with labour or establish non-union activities is included
in the management decision.Labours are labelled as the proletariats in one of the most famous
sociological theory by Karl Marx. Labours are a very important part of any society as well as any
economy. The contribution of labour in the economy of any country is limitless. Without the
contribution of labours all the factories will shut down completely which will result in a very huge
economic crisis. For this reason, they have great importance in the economy. In Bangladesh,
labours are one of the main factors in the development of the country. The clothing and textile
industries are the single most vital source which is the reason why the economy of Bangladesh is
developing so quickly. Bangladesh is the second-largest country to export garments after China.
Bangladesh earns its foreign currencies mostly by exporting garments. This garments sector is
nothing without the contribution of the labours. There are 5271 garment factories in Bangladesh
and there are millions of labours working in those factories. So, it is very important for the
government and the employers of these factories to provide the hard-working labours with proper
facilities.
3. Basic Labour Rights
Labour rights are the rights that are needed to implement for the labours. There are different laws
for different kinds of labour sector. In EPZ area, Govt institutions use different laws for labours.
The laws for labour is known as “Bangladesh labour Act 2006”. On 22nd July 2013, this
amendment happened. Before this law, there were 50 industrial-related laws in our country. At
that time, if anyone wants to know any of the sections then he/she had to go through all the 50
section to find the solution. Sometimes they might be unable to find. For that reason, in 2006 the
judiciary repelled the 25 section and came up with “Bangladesh Labour Law Act 2006” and in
2013. We can see the rapid change of the amendment. All kind of labour right is completely
included in Bangladesh labour Act 2006. After a protracted battle under the Labour Union Act
1926, employees got their trade union rights. Two different laws were there at the time of the
Pakistan era. These two statutes combine into the 1969 Workplace Relations Ordinance, Trade
Union Act and the Industrial Dispute Resolution Act; major labour laws passed in 1965, such as
the Factories Act, the Shops and Establishment Act, the Employment of Labour (SO) Act. Some
basic labour rights are:

3.1. Healthy workplace environment:

Every employer should predict that the atmosphere in their workplace is safe. There shouldn't be
something that could pose risks to their health and safety. The atmosphere at work should be safe
and hygienic. Adequate ventilation and sufficient temperature, no overcrowding, adequate light,
drinking water, and dust bin & spittoon, etc. should be given.

3.2. Working hour and Wage equality:

Employees have an hour limit for their monthly, everyday jobs. No adult employees are permitted
to work more than 8 hours a day. According to section 108, "An employer of any such employee
may work no more than 10 hours per day in an establishment." There have also been weekly
restrictions, including the daily limit. There are no adult employees permitted to work more than
48 hours a week. "According to the provisions of section 108, "any such worker can work more
than forty-eight hours a week in an institution. But this threshold does not exceed sixty hours.
Employers are not obligated to pay the same wages for all labour.
3.3. No discrimination in the workplace:
The Employers treated one of his labour less favorably than a colleague. This discrimination
shouldn’t happen. This discrimination can cause harm in their wages, leaves, hiring, firing all.
Discrimination can happen by:

1. Marital status
2. Sexual Orientation
3. Religious belief
4. Gender
5. Pregnancy
6. Gender reassignment
7. Age
8. Race

3.4. Maternity benefit:

Women are entitled to maternity benefits under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 if they have
worked for an employer for at least 6 months. In those 16 weeks, they are entitled to the payment
of maternity benefits. This involves paying 8 weeks before delivery and 8 weeks after delivery,
respectively. During this period, no female should work because that could harm her. During their
pregnancy period, the employer should not force females to work or place heavy workloads on
them. The client and colleague have certain responsibilities for pregnant women.

3.5. Family & Medical leave:

When a Labour is in a serious health condition or injured or any other difficulties they face they
can ask for Family or Medical leave. Leave can be classified by

● Casual leave
● Maternity leave
● Sick leave
● Annual leave
● Festival Holiday
3.6. Safety of the labours:
The workplace of the labours should be safe in every way possible. The building or site where they
are working should be well maintained. There should be no situation which is life threatening. The
labours should not be forced to work in any place which is risky and hazardous to their health.

3.7. Death compensation:

If by any chance the death of any labour occurs because of the negligence of the employer then a
certain amount of compensation must be payed to the labour family. According to Bangladesh
Labour Act 2006 minimum 1lac should be paid to the family due to the uncertain death of labours.

4. Current Situation of Labours in Bangladesh:

Bangladesh's work has always been confronted with many challenges and prejudice. According to
the law, they have many rights, but almost 90% of employers are careless about basic labor rights.
We can see many incidents which prove that our country's work is not healthy. Some of the cases
of such incidents are given below:

4.1. Safety Measures:

Employers in Bangladesh do not ensure a suitable work environment for workers. They want to
make more profit by reducing the cost to protect the workers. They play with the workers’ lives.
According to the labor law of Bangladesh, if a worker dies in his workplace, his family will get
one lakh as compensation and if a worker becomes permanently disabled, he will get 1.25
lakh.However, it is very difficult for a poor family to survive in this small amount of money
because at present the price of all the necessities is very high and this price is increasing day by
day. Again the employers do not pay that compensation properly so the working families have to
live in an uncertain future.

Tazreen fashions factory, which is at Ashulia, Dhaka caught fire on November 24, 2012. A sum
of at least 112 workers died and 125 were injured that day. The Bangladesh government said the
fire was a "sabotage act" but did not say who was responsible for the sabotage or how it happened,
and an investigation into the incident found that there were two high-voltage power transformers
on the ground floor and a stockpile of fabric. Many of the workers who survived the accident
claimed that they wanted to flee after hearing the fire alarm but the managers forced them to
continue their work. As a result, they continued to work even after the fire broke out. They also
said that after the power went out they started panicking and then the smoke and heat filled the
factory. Many workers jumped from the burning building as the fire spread to the factory, causing
serious injuries and others who were burnt alive could not escape. On the other hand, the factory
did not have an emergency exit and adequate fire protection equipment, nor did it have adequate
water sources, which led to the rapid spread of the fire. The factory was never inspected by the
Chief Inspector of Establishment during construction. The factory owners did not provide adequate
protection for the workers, resulting in the death of the worker due to the negligence of the owner,
but the law of Bangladesh has not yet blamed him. Many of the workers who died in the accident
were the breadwinners of their families. A few years after that tragedy, the families of the victims
and the dead workers received compensation. However, many workers reported that they did not
receive compensation or the necessary financial assistance.

The Rana Plaza building collapsed only five months later. On April 24, 2013, the deadliest factory
disaster took place and claimed the lives of at least 1132 workers and injured over 2000. The day
before the collapse, the walls of the building showed cracks, but the workers were still under threat
of going to work, which cost their lives. In order to get out, many of them were trapped in the
rubble and had to undergo amputations on site. Others were trapped for days until being rescued,
surrounded by their dead colleagues. The majority of the garment workers were belowthe ageof
30.80% of Rana Plaza survivors are women and numerous women were left by their husbands who
were considered burdens as they could not work anymore. The building had six floors originally
but later build two more floors that were illegal. A 9th floor was also being constructed without
proper permits. It was poorly constructed and situated on a drained swamp. The injured workers
and the families of the deceased were given compensation for their suffering and the long-term
loss of earnings. But money cannot really compensate the negligence of the garment's factory
owners towards their employee's safety. Many families of the missing or unidentified workers
were not even paid compensation by the government.

Following the collapse of Rana Plaza, the government of Bangladesh began to make enormous
efforts to make garment factories safer. Addressing protection and well-being is very necessary
for the government, factory owners, international retailers, and donors.

4.2.Gender inequality:
One of the most important problem faced by female workers of Bangladesh is the sex-segregation
of labor. Even if men and women have the same skill and experience, male workers are given
promotions more easily. Women are mostly found at the lowest level of the job hierarchy with
little employment security. Female workers tend to get lower wages compared to male. Women
do not get equal access to resources. They do not even have much opportunities available at the
workplace. On average, women earn less than men even if they do similar work like men. The
labors of Bangladesh are often verbally and physically abused. But the harsh reality is women are
also threatened of sexual violence. Many female workers admitted of receiving insults of a sexual
nature. The labors have the right to form trade unions, but many women complained that the
factory managers even threatened to rape if they do not quit union membership.

Women also face pregnancy discrimination and challenges at the workplace. According to the
Labor Act of Bangladesh, women have the right to 16 weeks maternity benefit. But many
employers do not really allow maternity leave or give too little leave. A union leader said that she
was forced to resign before she gave birth. The pregnant women are often fired if they cannot take
heavy workloads. Pregnancy discrimination has become a serious problem and it should be looked
after by the government.

4.3. Wages and Working Hour:

It is nothing new that our labors aren’t getting the minimum amount of wage according to their
needs. If we look closely, we can see that the average monthly wage for Bangladeshi labours is
just $101 compared to $135 in Myanmar, $170 in Cambodia and $518 in China. In Bangladesh
labours work more than 8 hours and sometimes they work overtime just to earn more money.
Despite working more hour, they are not paid enough. We can see many labours are going on strike
and shutting down factories for days demanding fair wages. There are many incidents where we
can see that labours are protesting for getting more wages. For example, garments workers
protested for increasing their wages during January 2019. The protest was so severe that there was
a serious clash with the police. The labours were accused of vandalism and more. After the strike
more than 7500 garment workers were fired from their jobs. But for this protest the government
issued a new law which increased the wage of labours from 8000 taka or $100 to 18,257 taka or
$228 monthly. Inspite of that there are many employers who still don’t pay their employees with
proper wages.

Again, because of the COVID – 19 situations are faced by the nation right now; it has become
clear that most of the labors are not even getting paid. Paying the wage in time is a big thing for
the labors as it is their only way to survive. But most of the time we can see that the labors who
are working under a person or a boss isn’t paid what he or she deserves. Instead they sometimes
don’t even care to give their workers any wages after they have completed their work. It is a
situation which isn’t something new in our country but it’s the rate of negligence of labors wages
which is increasing day by day. We know that for COVID-19 government issued lockdown on
25th March 2020 strictly all over Bangladesh. However, 985 factories, which includes 299
garments remained open at that time too. There was many news where we could see that labours
were forced to worked even in this pandemic. This shows how much careless the government and
the employers are about the labours. Keeping in mind of the COVID 19 situation and also the
development of our country has gone through the recent years, $100 which is equivalent to
8,500taka in a monthly basis isn’t enough to survive for most of the labors in the country.
4.4. Holidays and Medical leaves:
Our country's labor is not only underpaid, but they also don't get leave, either. Friday is known as
our nation's public holiday, but most of the time we see that labor tends to work too often by force
or to get extra money in the holidays so that they can survive. Most of the time, women workers
who are pregnant are forced to leave their jobs in particular. As the owners do not allow them to,
even though it is mentioned in the labor law, they are afraid to ask for their leave entitlements.
Owners who claim to give vacations typically do not give four months' leave to employees, two
months before birth and two months after birth, respectively.It is becoming an alarming concern
for workers in the COVID-19 scenario. Even when the government has issued a serious lockdown,
labor is forced to operate. They are reluctant to visit the factories, but they have no choice, because
they will lose their jobs if they don't. This is another violation of labor's basic rights. Like any other
full-wage workers, they should be permitted on general holidays.

4.5.Health Hygiene
A major concern for the laboratories is the health hygiene problem in our country. In a healthy
environment, maximum labor does not work in our country. There are labor laws in Bangladesh
that are related to the health issues of garment workers. Working hours, employment, sick time,
maternity leave and insurance, pensions and other working environment issues are included in the
regulations. Bangladesh's government, textile employers and numerous foreign and national NGOs
have important roles to play in minimizing health hazards for workers. The paper examines
numerous disease categories and discusses health hazards faced through narratives by women
textile workers.

Over the past few months, things have changed significantly during COVID 19, and health hygiene
problems have been worse than ever before. We all know that this disease is a deadly disease and
we should all strictly maintain a social distance and work in a very clean environment to prevent
ourselves from this virus. But most of the factories' surroundings are polluted. Again, the amount
of work is too much and the capacity is too small that it is almost impossible to maintain a social
distance. Even in this dangerous situation, work has to be done to earn a livelihood. There is no
way for a worker to consider or think about his or her health because if they don't work, they will
be fired.
5.How to overcome Current Labour problems
Every person should be properly informed in order to develop basic labor rights in our country.
The people of Bangladesh are not adequately careful about the activities of this country. Until
anything big happens, they don't notice the challenges faced by labor. For instance, if we were
more concerned, the death and injury of the employees of those five factories operating in Rana
Plaza might have been prevented. Similarly, if Tazreen Fashions employees had been members of
an efficient union, they would have had training in fire safety and might have detected safety
violations that led to the breakout of the fire.

The government is taking steps, but they are struggling to enforce such measures that do not serve
the fundamental rights of labor as they should be. The government should ensure that the buildings
where employees work are properly constructed. All factories should provide employees with a
safe and clean environment. For any kind of disasters such as fire and earthquake, they should
have a fire escape and fire hydrant and take proper precautions. Government staff should
personally see where the government's instructions are maintained by the factories and the owners.
This creates awareness in the minds of the factory owners.
The government should prosecute employers who still do not offer adequate salaries and breach
civil rights laws. Whenever anything is found that breaches the labor law, strict action should be
taken. In this way, all workers will be more conscious and their human rights will be in the
workforce.

There are several labor unions that already exist, but the union's efforts should be stronger and
more successful. Our nation's labor has protested many times in many ways. The Bangladesh
government has often released new laws to meet the labour demands because of their
demonstrations. Despite the fact that the jobs are still not getting enough benefits that they are
meant to get. They still face health and hygiene issues, workplace safety, gender discrimination,
not getting enough wages, and many more. But the voice is one thing that works in our country.
In order to achieve the fundamental rights of labor, they always protest and try their best. They
protest against their employers; they protest against the government's wrong choice and they
protest whenever the situation gets out of hand and it is necessary to take serious steps. Bangladeshi
workers should continue to protest against any injustice and should get what they really deserve.
6. Conclusion
Labours are the heart of the economy of Bangladesh. The economy of this country can not be even
imagined without the contribution of the labours. Labours laws are need to be applied not only to
ensure the rights of the labours but also to control the labours.

In a country of over 160 million people where a large and cheap labour force of over 60 million
are active, it is a must to ensure labour rights through the use of labour laws. In most cases in
Bangladesh, labour laws are being violated by the giant organizations. But the government is trying
to ensure adequate applies of the labour laws and also by adopting new laws to keep the labours
rights justified. Besides, the contribution of some organizations that work for labours are also
helping the government to ensure basic labour rights through the implementation of labour laws.
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