To amend the country's labour law in line with the international conventions on human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance is admittedly the demand of the time. Also, members of the international community including Western diplomats, those of the European Union (EU) in particular, have been urging the government to effect the required amendments if only to continue availing the duty-free, quota-free (DFQF) access, the so-called GSP facilities, of the country's exports to its largest overseas market, the EU. And, after LDC graduation, the required changes in labour law would also help benefit from EU's GSP plus programme meant for vulnerable developing countries. Notably, through submitting application for the purpose, Bangladesh may be eligible for GSP plus upon expiry of three-year grace period (until 2029) following its LDC graduation by November 2026.
It is against this backdrop that the Tripartite Consultative Committee (TCC), a platform for consultation between the government, employers and workers to resolve industrial issues and help the government frame a relevant policy and effect labour law reform, reportedly, met in the city recently. The meeting chaired by the labour and employment adviser, aimed to fine-tune proposals for amending labour laws to meet international standards. In that meeting, a consensus was reached on the subject of forming trade unions (TU) in factories. In the said amendment thus proposed, the existing requirement of a factory's, say an RMG unit's, 20 per cent labour force's consent to form a TU, has been replaced, as reported, by a numerical option of at least 20 workers. The numerical threshold will replace the previous percentage option to form a trade union. According to the suggested amendments, the number of TUs to be formed in a factory has been increased to five in place of the previous three. The suggested amendments to the existing labour law should simplify the process related to registering and functioning of trade unions in industry.
The labour representatives at the TCC meeting rightly put forward strong arguments in favour of the numerical threshold instead of percentage. However, the employers' side, though it agreed to the numerical option for TUs in RMG units, stressed that for factories outside the RMG sector, the number should be higher. For formation of Collective Bargaining Agents (CBAs), representation from the majority workers of a factory was suggested. On this particular issue, the labour representatives favoured electing the CBA through vote.
Some experts and industry representatives, however, expressed concerns that the amendment to TU formation with might lead to chaos, weaken management control and increase political interference from beyond the factories. Yet, once incorporated in the country's labour law, it would go a long way to make it compliant to international conventions facilitating its integration into the global economy and access to preferential tariff rates on selected products.
Also, the labour law having enacted through embodiment of the proposed amendments, may also help establish workers' rights in an industry. At the same time, the TUs, to be formed, will give a stronger voice to the workers' demands and through their increased participation in the affairs of a factory, they would also be able to contribute positively to intra-industrial relations and productivity.
In this connection, the interim government needs to fast-track its endeavour to bring about the necessary amendments to the labour law in order to take better advantage of the prevailing DFQF arrangements from the EU market after the post-LDC graduation phase. It is more so, when the current world economy, including the Bangladesh's, is compelled to battle against the tariff anarchy triggered by Donald Trump.
