Trade unions oppose provision of draft labour law

Leaders of Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (Skop), the country's top body of trade unions, yesterday called for elimination of a draft labour law provision that specifies a prerequisite of 20 percent workers' participation for the formation of trade unions.

There should not be any condition regarding the number of participating workers, they said.

The draft has lowered the workers' participation required to form trade unions at factories to 20 percent from 30 percent under pressure from the International Labour Organization and other global communities.

Inclusion of the provision goes against workers' interests, said the Skop leaders at a media briefing at the National Press Club. 

They said freedom of the association for workers might not be ensured if the provision was not excluded from the proposed amendment of the labour law, which was approved by the cabinet on September 3.

The Skop leaders also urged the government to raise the compensation for industrial accident victims to Tk 14.75 lakh, a figure suggested by a special committee which fixed similar payments under the High Court's guidance for the Rana Plaza collapse victims.

The proposed amendment also awarded four months' paid maternity leave to female workers. However, government employees get six months under the same leave. The Skop leaders said the provision was discriminatory and two different laws for the same issue could not exist in a country. They urged the government to ensure equal treatment for both public and private sector employees.

Speaking at the media briefing, Chowdhury Ashiqul Alam, general secretary of rights group Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra, said many of the proposals recommended by the union leaders during the drafting of the law have not been included in the final version.

Labour rights will not be protected if the proposals of the Skop are not fully incorporated in the final law, he said.

In a written statement, Naimul Ahsan Jewel, joint coordinator of the Skop, said there were no trade unions in most of the factories.

In such cases, Workers' Participation Committees (WPCs) will act as trade unions. But the WPCs might not be able to defend labour rights because owners may influence the committees, he said.

The Skop leaders urged the government to formulate the labour law as per the provisions of the ILO to properly protect the rights of workers.