The interim government has restructured the tripartite committee to draft proposed amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, aligning it with recommendations from global stakeholders, including the International Labour Organisation.
The labour ministry on November 27 issued a gazette notification in this regard, abolishing the previous one issued on September 20, 2022.
The 17-member committee included 11 government officials from the ministries of labour, commerce, textiles and jute, and industries, along with three representatives from each of employers and workers groups.
The ministry directed the committee to prepare and submit the draft amendments to the labour act to the labour secretary but did not specify a deadline for submission.
Labour secretary AHM Shafiquzzaman announced at a recent press conference that Bangladesh was committed to introducing further amendments to the labour act by March next year, following its last revision in 2018.
He said that this commitment was made during the 352nd session of the International Labour Organisation governing body held in Geneva from October 28 to November 7.
At the 108th session of the ILO in mid-June 2019, labour representatives from Italy, Japan, South Africa, Pakistan and Brazil called for an inquiry commission against the government of Bangladesh.聽
Bangladesh was accused of failing to uphold ILO conventions, specifically Convention 87 on freedom of association and the right to organise, Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining and Convention 81 on labour inspection.
The complainants also proposed forming a commission of inquiry to address these alleged violations.聽
In response, the ILO, in November 2020, asked Bangladesh to develop a time-bound roadmap to resolve the issues raised by the complainants.
Bangladesh subsequently prepared a roadmap focusing on four priority areas, each with specific actions aligned to a timeline: labour law reform, trade union registration, labour inspection and enforcement, and addressing anti-union discrimination, unfair labour practices and violence against workers.聽
The European Union and the United States have also urged Bangladesh to amend its labour law by easing trade union rules, simplifying trade union registration processes and reducing the worker threshold required to form a union.
