legal mechanism of Bangladesh is adequate in Oder to protect labor rights


Introduction:

All human beings are born free and very comparable in dignity and rights. They are endowed with justification and conscience and should play-act to one another in character of brotherhood. Everyone is authorized to all the privileges and freedoms set ahead in this resolution, without distinction of any kind for instance run, shade of color, sex, terminology, faith, political or other view, countrywide or public lineage, real estate, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction will be made on the foundation of the political, jurisdictional or global position of the nation or territory. The time span “labor” signifies divergent things to divergent observers. It may cite to population who work or the human pursuit that creates wares and services in an economy. As a grouping of population, the time span broadly chatting cites to staff administration that exemplify workers’ welfare collectively and individually and have staff as their members. “Labor” may play-act to realize precise short-term goals, for instance final outlook talking to workplace circumstances, or large-scale, eventual goals, such as carrying about public and political change. Thus, is relying on one’s vantage, the time span may cite to precise highly-developed bonds between employers and unions or it may be construed more widely to cite to all those who strive to make a residing, if formally or casually engaged in work, self-employed, out of work, or out of the workforce. At the broadest stage, the time span can basically intend all workers. According to Bangladesh Labor Law-

“‘Worker’ means any person including an apprentice employed in any establishment or industry, either directly or through a contractor, to do any skilled, unskilled, manual, technical, trade promotional or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be expressed or implied, but does not include a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity”[1].

Labor or labor might refer to:

ü      “Employment-  any kind of

ü        Wage labor-    in which a worker sells their labor and the employer buys it Employment.

ü        Manual labor- physical work done by people.”[2]

An Act towards consolidate and alter the laws relating towards vocation of labor, relations between

workers and employers decision of minimum wage, fee of income and payment for stings towards servants, formation of sell unions, elevating and village of industrial argues, health, safety, interests and working moods of servants, and apprenticeship and matters accessory towards it. Whereas it is expedient towards consolidate and alter the laws relating towards vocation of labor, Relations between servants and employers, decision of minimum income, fee of income and payment for stings towards servants, formation of sell unions, elevating and village of industrial argues, health, safety, interests and working moods of servants, grading and matters related .

BANGLADESHI LABOR STATASTICS
Agricultural workers > Female 78%
Compensation of employees > % of expense 25.49 %
Economic activity > Men aged 65 plus 58.98
Employees, industry, female > % of female employment 18.4 %
Employees, industry, male > % of male employment 12.3 %
Employees, services, female > % of female employment 23 %
Employment in agriculture > % of total employment 51.7 %
Employment in industry > % of total employment 13.7 %
Labor force 69,400,000
Labor force > By occupation
agriculture 63%, services 26%, industry 11%

SOURCES: ILO (International La OURCES: ILO (International Labor Organization). 2002.

Women in the Garment Industry

Garment sector is the highest employer of women in Bangladesh. The garment sector has gave employment opportunities to women from the countryside that formerly did not have any frontier to be fraction of the formal workforce. This has given women the chance to be financially independent and have a voice in the family because now they contribute financially. However, the women employees are facing a lot problem. Most women come from low revenue families. Low wage of women employees and their compliance have enabled the industry to compete with the world market.

What is child labor?

“A child who has completed twelve years of age, may be employed in such light work as not to endanger his health and development or interfere with his education; Provided that the hours of work of such child, where he is school going, shall be so arranged that they do not interfere with is school attendance”[3]

KEY STATISTICS

Working children, aged 5-17
7.4 million
Working children, aged 5-14
4.7 million
Child laborers (according to definition, below), aged 5-17
3.2 million
Children engaged in hazardous labor, aged 5-17 1.3 million
Child domestic workers
421,000
Percentage of children (aged 5-14) engaged in child labor (2006)
National
Slum
Tribal
12.8
19.1
17.6

International Labor Organization (ILO), Baseline Survey on Child Domestic Labor in Bangladesh, 2006 2 BBS/ UNICEF, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006, October 2007 All other statistics from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Report on National Child Labor Survey, 2002-2003

Some laws and regulation for Labor Rights:

  • “The provision of a general minimum working age of 14 years of age (Sec. 34).
  • The provision for appointment letters, identity cards, and for maintenance of a service book and labor register (Secs. 5-9).
  • Limitations on working hours to eight hours a day (Sec. 100), and 48 hours a week (Sec. 102).
  • An increase in maternity benefits from three months to four months for women who have worked for at least six months (Sec. 46). Limitations on the hiring of children and adolescents without certification of a registered practitioner with regards to his or her capability to engage in the work. Children fewer than 12 are not allowed to work at all, children between 12-14 are allowed to engage in light forms of work, while adolescents (defined as between 14-18) are limited in the kinds of work they may undertake, and must be trained on any machinery that they might be using (Sec. 39).
  • Labor courts now have the power to hear and impose criminal penalties (Sec. 313).
  • The introduction of a provision requiring equal pay for equal work (Sec. 345)”[4]

The Right of Association

The law provides for the right to appear at unions and, with central social family members contentment, the right to type a union, even so more restrictions on union reservation remained. For case, the law requires more than 30 per 100 of an enterprise’s total workforce to be constituents in the past contentment and the union can be softened if membership plunges on the floor heading down 30 percent; no more than three deal unions can be reserved in any establishment; and managerial employees and other personnel designated by employers as “confidential” may not appear at unions.

ü      The total labor force was approximately 50 million,

ü      Approximately 1.9 million belonged to unions, many of which were affiliated with political parties.

ü      There were approximately 5,000 garment factories employing 2.5 million workers;

ü       More than 80 percent were women. [5]

The 2006 Bangladesh Labor Act (BLA) consolidated laws from 25 separate acts into one in individual law. The director of labor is responsible for the reservation and dissolution of unions. The registrar of deal unions has command to deregister unions without labor court contentment, and during the year numerous unions were deregistered, at the begin for labor law violations. The law afforded unions the right of captivate in the covering of dissolution or rebuttal of registration.

Labor Rights:

“The law recognized the right to strike; however, many restrictions on this right remained. Irregular labor unrest occurred throughout the country, particularly in the ready-made garment sector. Labor organizers reported frequent acts of intimidation and abuse, arbitrarily locking out, and firing employees, and increased scrutiny by security forces. In the face of frequent unrest and protests demanding outstanding wages, unpaid overtime, and decent working conditions, in December home minister advocate Sahara Khatun announced the government would create a 1,580-member “industrial police force” to target apparel sector workers and protect investors’ assets.”[6]

The law deployed mechanisms for conciliation, arbitration, and labor court challenge resolution. Workers have the right to attack in the occasion of a failure to arrive settlement. The federal filed cases against several attacking labor presidents and employees for destruction of property, blocking streets, or violation of the EPR provisions. In several cases, the petitions courts subsequently acquitted strikers.

The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

The law secures the rights of employees to organize and cheap collectively without interference, but this right was not invariably efficiently enforced.  Employers frequently searched to curtail this right, especially in the ready-made garment industry. Implementation of these provisions was rough and lot private sector employers deterred union activity. Some employers flamed employees suspected of organizing or sympathizing with unions, placed informants in labor fields, and intimidated employees with threats of violence. Workers filed legal cases against EPZ factories that did not follow the BLA[7], and the courts made no decisions on this point. In May 2008, through an amendment of the BLA, the federal certified that no import union office can be deployed indoor or within 200 meters of any industrial institution or team of institutions.

Prevention of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The penal code prohibits coerced or bonded labor; however, the formal punishment of imprisonment for upward to one year or a fine was not sufficiently stringent to deter the offense, and the federal did not impose the prohibitions effectively. Though relatively rare in urban fields, bonded labor waited frequent in countryside and in servant service. Faced with extreme poverty and unemployment, rural employees, encompassing complete households, were buried in bonded labor, frequently facing physical insult and sometimes death.

Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment

Under the law every kid must attend college through level five or the age of ten years, but there is no efficient constitutional machinery to impose these supplies, and kid labor is widespread.

Children were found-

  • working in street transportation, such as rickshaw dragging, automotive repair, and minibus assistance, salt and match factories, and tanneries,
  • The manufacturing of bricks, cigarettes, dried fish, shoe, metal furnishings, glass, textiles, garments, and soap.
  • Printing, fabrication, stone breaching, dyeing operations, blacksmith contribution, and construction hotels and restaurants.
  • begging, pottering, shining shoes, collecting paper, and selling flowers
  • Smuggling and trading arms and drugs.

Children commonly executed servant work. In 2008 the federal, with ILO advocate, deployed a kid labor unit at the Ministry of Labor and Employment to organize planning and execution of all child-related labor interventions.

CONCLUSION:

Labor rights or workers’ rights are a assembly of lawful rights and contended human rights having to do with labor family members between people enlisted and their employers, broadly articulating accepted below labor and employment law. In complete, these rights’ discussions have to do with negotiating workers’ compensate, superiority, and safe toiling conditions. One of the bulks inside of these “rights” is the right to unionize. Unions take gain of collective bargaining and industrial motion to enhance their members’ earnings and otherwise modification their toiling situation. The labor movement earlier put accent on on this “right to unionize”, but attention has transferred elsewhere.

The law provides for the right to attend unions and, with federal satisfaction, the right to model a union, however many restrictions on union booking remained. The total labor coerce was roughly 50 million, of whom roughly 1.9 million belonged to unions, a lot of which were associated with political parties. There were roughly 5,000 garment factories recruiting 2.5 million workers; more than 80 per cent were women. No consistent labor statistics were available for the great informal sector in which the majority (nearly 80 percent) of civilians worked. There are lots of governs and law in Bangladesh but constitutional machinery is all right in command to shelter labor rights is not very correct. Most of the time authorities doesn’t want to chase the governs and sometimes labors also breach the laws. We have governs but we didn’t appeal those. So federal must take care of it because labors are very significant resource for our country. Most of our foreign earning, export-import depends on them. That’s why we lack give proper care of it.

Bibliography:

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[1] Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006

(XLII of 2006)

Labor relations may be viewed generally as the relationship between workers and employers or more specifically “as a system for striking a balance between the employment relationship goals of efficiency, equity, and voice, and between the rights of labor and management” (Budd 2008, vii).

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_law

[3] – (Exception in certain cases of employment of children).

[4] Ordinances 14, May 4, 2008 (Sec. 179A).

[5] No reliable labor statistics were available for the large informal sector in which the majority (nearly 80 percent) of citizens worked.

[6] http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/sca/136085.htm ( Section 7 Worker Rights)

[7] Bangladesh Labor Act(BLA)