Adjusting wages in every 3 years recommended

The Labour Reform Commission has recommended assessment of the workers in various sectors and adjusting their wages every three years.

The Commission has also recommended paying compensation to the workers if wages are not paid on time, annual increment taking into consideration the inflation rate, constituting emergency fund for export-oriented industries, relaxing the conditions of opening trade unions, stopping outsourcing in permanent jobs, granting six months maternity leave, setting up a permanent labour commission and others.

The 1o-member Labour Reform Commission, headed by Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), made the recommendations in a report submitted to the Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at State Guesthouse Jamuna on Monday.

The Commission also recommended against terming someone “tui and tumi” to ensure a dignified working environment.

Overall aspects of the labour reform have been reflected in the 25 recommendations of the commission.

The Chief Adviser’s press wing informed this to the media from a press conference at Foreign Service Academy in the capital.

Later in the afternoon, Commission head Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed and other members spoke in detail about the report at a media conference at Sromo Bhabon.

Speaking at the press conference, Chief Adviser’s Deputy Press Secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad Majumder said the Chief Adviser has advised the Labour Reform Commission to talk to the National Consensus Commission over the final report so that the Consensus Commission could discuss this with the political parties. The political parties have roles to implement the recommendations, he pointed out.

The Labour Reform Commission has recommended ensuring legal protection and acknowledgement of all the workers. It said about making it compulsory for all organisations to issue an appointment letter, identity card or other evidence to workers for formal and informal works.

The Commission also recommended opening a worker friendly pension scheme under the National Pension Scheme and distributing ration for the workers in the industrial and rural areas.

The Labour Reform Commission has also recommended announcing a minimum national wage to ensure a dignified livelihood of a labour and his/her family. It said the “national minimum wage” would be considered as a minimum standard to fix the wages of all workers of formal and informal, government and private and foreign organisations and at the individual level. The wage of any worker of any sector has to be fixed considering him/her as the sole breadwinner of a family so that the worker could meet the expenses of the family.

Currently, the wages of the workers of readymade garment factories and tanneries are adjusted every five years, which has been recommended to bring down to three years.

The Labour Reform Commission also said that the increment should be consistent with the inflation rate. The current increment rate is 5 per cent. However, the increment for the RMG workers was 9 per cent this year due to high inflation rate and some other factors.

The workers often take to the streets and block roads and highways on demand of wages and other compensations. Taking those past incidents in consideration, the reform commission has made several recommendations to hold the employing firm accountable.

It has been said that submitting all the information regarding payment of wages to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) online every month has to be compulsory. If any company fails to pay wages within the stipulated date, the worker has to be compensated at a rate of 0.5 per cent.

The Commission has also recommended the government forming an emergency fund for the export-oriented industries where employing firms will deposit two months salaries of the workers. The fund will be managed jointly by the employing firm, the government and the association of the owners of relevant industries.

It has also been recommended to completely stop the practice of “outsourcing” for the permanent jobs at government offices. The report said the relevant offices will take steps to appoint those, who are already involved in the outsourcing of such jobs, as permanent employees.

Currently Tk 200,000 is paid as compensation if a worker dies at the working place. Terming the amount insufficient, the Commission recommended fixing a minimum amount by raising the compensation money. The Commission said the standard of compensation has to be fixed through a tripartite committee following the Convention 121 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the High Court directives. Apart from this, making accident insurance compulsory for the workers of all sectors and reforming the laws for this is recommended.

On 17 November 2024, the interim government formed the 10-member Labour Reform Commission with Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), as its chief.

Other members of the Commission are - Mahfuzul Haque, former secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Jakir Hossain, professor at the Institute of Bangladesh Studies at Rajshahi University; Tapan Dutta, president of the Chattogram divisional committee of the Bangladesh Trade Union Centre; Advocate AKM Nasim, former president of Bangladesh Labour Court Bar Association; M Kamran T Rahman, former president of Bangladesh Employer Federation; Shakil Akhter Chowdhury, general secretary of Bangladesh Labour Federation; Taslima Akhter, photographer and labour movement organiser; Mustafa Al Hossain Akil; Barrister Nihad Kabir; Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of Apex Footwear Limited; Fazle Shamim Ahsan, managing director of Fatullah Apparels Limited; ANM Saif Uddin, member of coordination Committee of BGMEA; Faruk Ahmad, secretary general and CEO of BEF; Annana Rahman, economist; Ariful Islam, labour organiser and media activist; Anwar Hossain, president of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal; and Md Rajekuzzaman Ratan, president of Bangladesher Samajtrantik Dal.

There has been local and international pressure for relaxing the conditions for trade unions in the industrial sector. Currently, it requires signatures of 20 per cent workers for registration of a trade union if the total number of workers at any factory is less than 3,000 and the required percentage point is 15 if the number of workers exceeds 3,000.

Considering this condition the toughest obstacle to register a trade union, the Labour Reform Commission has stressed on taking into account the minimum number of workers instead of a certain ratio of the total workers.

Advices have been made to constitute a tripartite committee for this.

Besides this, the Commission has asked to bring transparency in the registration process of trade unions and said the Department of Labour will have to take decisions regarding registration within 55 days. The Department of Labour will have to account if the decision is not taken on time.

The Labour Reform Commission has recommended to raise maternity leave for female workers to 180 days from existing 112 days. The government will have to assist alongside the respective establishments. Emphasis has been placed on taking a special scheme for the workers of the informal sector. The Commission also spoke about fixing paternity leave following a global standard.

The Labour Reform Commission report further said the state will have to take special measures to ensure the right to protection from sexual and all other types of harassment and violence. As per a directive of the High Court issued in 2009, all the factories and organisations will have to compose an anti-sexual abuse and violence policy. At the same time, it is essential to resolve all the allegations by forming a complaint cell.

It also put emphasis on using Bangla in all levels of the labour court.

The Commission further recommended setting up a permanent labour commission. According to the Commission, as a preliminary step, forming a national social dialogue forum at the initiative of the labour ministry is necessary. It also recommended establishing a national minimum wage commission and permanent national wage commission alongside creating two new directorates at the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

When newspersons asked Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed what should be the first step of implementation of the recommendations, the Commission head said the work could be started with setting up a data centre first with the information of all workers.

He mentioned that the government is pledge-bound to reform the labour laws by March 2026. The interim government could carry out the necessary reforms through a notification.

Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed stressed on organising a labour conference on reaching a consensus on reform proposals.