Workers are still being deprived of their rights as the Bangladesh Labour Act endorsed in 2006 is yet to be implemented.
Fact is that 80 percent of the law is not being implemented in all sectors except the garment industry.
According to the sources of Ministry of Labour and Employment, implementation of labour act had begun in garment sector in face of pressures from buyers and different international quarters, following Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion tragedies.
At garment sector, 80 percent of the act has been implemented so far whereas scenarios of 100 other sectors are quiet opposite. As a result, nearly 10 million workers of those sectors are not getting their rights.
According to labour act specialist advocate Zafrul Hasan Sharif, one of the major reasons of why the act has not long been enacted sans garment sector is the lack of adequate number of inspectors.
Previously, there were only 74 inspectors and some 200 more have also been appointed recently. However, a total of 274 inspectors are not enough comparing to the large number of laborers, said Zafrul.
The advocate suggested for more than one thousand inspectors to perform the inspection fairly.
On the other hand, workers are being deprived in getting their privileges as they are not under the act, alleged Tapan Shaha, general secretary of Garment Workers Federation.
One must works at either a factory or an office, Tapan replied a banglanews query that what will happen to them who do not work at formal sectors.
Tapan informed that there are nearly 100 informal sectors like household services, soil cutting in the country.
The leader, however, think that not more than 50 percent of the labour act has been implemented in the country’s garment sector so far.
He also advocated for more amendments into the labour act to include workers of the informal sector.
In 2006, the country had passed the first-ever Bangladesh Labour Act, followed by enacting the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act in 2013.
