Cases pending for years at Chattogram labour courts
Trials of hundreds of cases filed by the workers have been pending for years at the two Labour Courts of Chattogram despite the provision to settle the cases within a maximum of 150 days.
According to the lawyers, there is a provision to complete the trial of the cases filed with the trial court within 60 days. However, the court can get 90 more days to settle the case if it can provide a valid reason. The defendants or the plaintiffs of the cases settled at the labour court also have the option to appeal to the Dhaka Labour Appeal Tribunal.
Speaking to the lawyers and appellants, it has been learnt that trial of a number of cases are pending for years at the Chattogram Labour Court due to several reasons, including crisis of judges, absence of representatives of factory owners and workers at the court, delay in summoning, lawyers taking time repeatedly and representatives not giving opinions on time.
A total of 2,024 cases are pending at the two labour courts in Chattogram. Of them 1,479 were filed with the first labour court and 545 were filed at the second labour court. Trials of more than 500 of these cases have been pending for four to five years. A total of 475 cases have been settled by these two courts in a year from April, 2023 to March 2024.
I am tired of going to the city of Chattogram from my village. I don’t go there anymore. I no longer have any interest in that case and don’t expect to get justice either
Brishty Das worked as a permanent operator at the hanger section of a garment factory, Duff PP Industries Limited, in the Nasirabad area.
All on a sudden, on 11 July 2018, she was fired from the company through a verbal notice. Following that, she wrote to the owners to clear her outstanding wages and the money due from the earned leaves.
However, there was no response. After that, she moved to the labour court and filed a case over the incident accusing factory owners and five others on 27 February 2019.
The labour court sent a notice to the defendants of the case after the plaintiff lodged the case. However, they didn’t respond or didn’t appear before the court either. No progress has been made in the case for the last three years.
Lately on 3 April, the court started recording the deposition of the plaintiff. The plaintiff gave a partial deposition that day. However, she didn’t appear on the stipulated date for case deposition and started asking for more time through her lawyer repeatedly.
Meanwhile, the defence lawyer appealed to not record the deposition one-sidedly. At the same time, they also submitted their response to the court notice. The court has set 22 July as the day to settle the case.
The court should adopt the alternative dispute resolution to make progress in the trials of pending cases. It will save time and reduce people’s suffering
Asked why there was so much delay in responding to the court notice, the defence lawyer Helal Uddin told Prothom Alo that it took time to arrange all the necessary paperwork. He claimed that nobody makes a delay deliberately.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, plaintiff Brishty Das said, “I am tired of going to the city of Chattogram from my village. I don’t go there anymore. I no longer have any interest in that case and don’t expect to get justice either.”
However, her lawyer said that his client has lost interest in the case due to massive delays. This is why he had appealed to the court asking for more time for case deposition repeatedly.
Chittagong University law department professor Mohammad Shaheen Chowdhury said, “The court should adopt the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to make progress in the trials of pending cases. It will save time and reduce people’s suffering. Both owners and workers will be benefited from this.”
*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu