A GROWING backlog of cases pending with 13 labour courts and the Labour Appellate Tribunal comes with concern as workers seeking justice often count a heavy cost. They have to wait for years for justice. And the loss of job, earning, time and energy continue to take a toll on their lives. They also need to take leave, often unpaid, from their current job to attend court proceedings. Labour Appellate Tribunal statistics show that 27,546 cases are now pending with the labour courts and the only appeals tribunal. The appeals tribunal has 1,023 cases pending, the three labour courts of Dhaka 14,650 cases, two labour courts of Chattogram 2,539 cases, the Khulna court 164 cases, the Rajshahi court 85 cases, the Rangpur court 102, the Sylhet court 64 cases, the Barishal court 68 cases, the Narayanganj court 2,815 cases, the Cumilla court 326 and the Gazipur court 6,230 cases. Of the cases, 13,833 cases have been pending for more than six months. The government has also set up a labour court in Mymensingh earlier this year to ease the case backlog.
Whilst the Labour Appellate Tribunal registrar says that efforts are under way to dispose of cases as early as possible, the number of cases pending with labour courts increased, as official statistics show, by 5,500 to 27,546 this March from the 21,891 cases pending with the courts in the corresponding month in 2025. Legal redress is mostly delayed, as labour leaders say, because labour court judges often do not hold proceedings on time and attend court proceedings at their convenience. The labour law stipulates the disposal of cases in labour courts within 60 days, which can be extended by 90 more days with valid reasons. But cases are hardly disposed of within the stipulated 150 days. Besides, employers often avoid complying with court verdicts, taking advantage of legal loopholes, which causes an excessive delay in redressal and adds to the sufferings of the workers seeking justice. Victims say that the defendants repeatedly seek time without appearing in court. A worker seeking Tk 318,353 in dues in a case filed in May 2017, as New Age reported on May 1, still walks around the court premises. Another worker who filed a case in March 2014 with the complaint that he had not been given an appointment letter had the verdict in his favour in 2022, but the issue remains unresolved as the employer challenged the verdict.
The proposition that it all comes to is that workers are doubly denied, first at work and then in court. The relevant authorities should, therefore, ensure that court proceedings are held on time and other issues are mended to reduce the backlog of cases pending with labour courts.
