Bangladesh labour law 2006

1. 1 Introduction:

Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 was enacted for amending and consolidating the laws relating
to employment of workers, relations between workers and employers, determination of
minimum rates of wages, payment of wages, compensation for injuries to workers during
working hours, formation of trade unions, raising and settlement of industrial disputes,
health, safety, welfare and working conditions and environment of workers and
apprenticeship and matters adjuvant thereto. In order to make the labour law more efficient,
amendments have been made to it several times and finally the latest amended law was
enacted in the year 2013 as “Bangladesh Labour Act 2006”. Subsequently as the Government
of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (Government of Bangladesh) was under pressure
from various sources to promulgate the Labour Rules for a long time, the Government of
Bangladesh has also introduced Bangladesh Labour Rules2015(Rule of 2015) on 15
September 2015 through a gazette.

Definition:
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR LAW: The labour movement has long been concerned that
economic globalization would weaken worker bargaining power, as their employers could
hire workers abroad to avoid domestic labour standards.

Supporting Acts of Labour Law in Bangladesh:

 The control of employment ordinance, 1965.

 The state -owned manufacturing industries workers (Terms & Conditions of
services) ordinance, 2000.
 The agricultural labour (Minimum wages) ordinance, 1984.
 The Fatal Accidents Act, 1855.
 The Trade Organizations Ordinance ,1961
 The Chittagong hill-Tracts (Labour law) Regulation, 1961.
 Bangladesh Cha Sramik Kallyan Fund Ordinance, 1968.
 The Public Servants (Retirements) Acts, 1974.

Role of Labour Law in protecting Labour Rights:

The labour law is very much important in Bangladesh perspective. It is highly important for the
industrial development of Bangladesh. We know that labour is a most important part of an
industry. So, we cannot think an industry without labour. Labour right is most essential in
Bangladesh. But the labours are in ignorance about their right. They don’t know properly about
labour laws and education. Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 and Amendment 2013 is important to
protect their Labour Rights.
WAGES AND PAYMENT:
Responsibility for payment of wages:

Every employer shall be responsible for the payment to workers employed by him of all wages
required to be paid under this act.

Fixation of wage-periods:

(1) Every person responsible for the payment of wages under section 121 shall fix periods, to be
called wage periods, in respect of which such wages shall be payable.

(2) No wage period shall exceed one month.

Time of payment of wages:

The wages of every worker shall be paid before the expiry of the seventh day after the last day
of the wage period in respect of which the wages are payable. All payment of wages shall be
made on a working day.

Wages to be paid in current coin or currency notes:

All wages shall be paid in current coin or currency notes or bank cheque.

WAGES BOARDS:
Establishment of Minimum wages Board:

(1) The Government shall establish a board to be called the minimum wages board.

(2) the minimum wages board, hereinafter referred to in this chapter as the wages board, shall
consist of-

(a) a chairman;

(b) one independent member;

(c) one member to represent the employers, and

(d) one member to represent the workers.

Minimum wages to be binding on all employers:

The minimum tares of wages declared under section 140 or published under section 145 shall be
binding on all employers concerned and every worker shall be entitled to be paid wages at a rate
which shall, in no case, be less than the rate of wages so declared or published.

Fixation of wages for newspaper workers:

In fixing rates of wages in respect of newspaper workers the Newspaper wage board shall take
into consideration the cost of living, The Newspaper wage board may fix rates of wages for time
work and for piece-work.

WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION FOR INJURY BY ACCIDENT:

Employer’s Liability for compensation:

If personal injury is caused to a worker by accident arising out of and during his employment, his
employer shall be liable to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

Method of calculating wages:

In this chapter and for the purpose thereof the expression ‘monthly wages’ means the amount of
wages deemed to be payable for a month’s service, whether the wages are payable by the month
o by whatever other period or at piece rates.

Commutation of monthly payments:

The employer may pay lump sum amount as monthly payments, by agreement between the
parties.

Distribution of compensation:

No payment of compensation in respect of a worker whose injury has resulted in death, and no
payment of a lump sum as compensation to a person under a legal disability, shall be made
otherwise than by deposit with labour court

Bangladesh labour law Amendment ,2013:

Under the new amendment to the law, group insurance must be extended to cover a minimum of
100 workers instead of the earlier 200 workers. Four new categories of workers — ship-
breaking, construction and agro firms and rice-husking mills — have been brought under the
coverage of the amendment to the Bangladesh Labour Law. The earlier version of the labour
law, passed in 2006, gave employers the power to veto the creation of unions, and hence, the
number of trade unions in Bangladesh garment sector remains small. The new labour law also
requires factories that sell products within Bangladesh to set aside 5 percent of their net profits in
a welfare fund.

Over 85 sections of the earlier version have been amended after consultations with various
stakeholders including representatives of workers, garment factory owners, buyers and the
International Labour Organization. However, the old provision of gathering signatures of at least
30 percent of a company’s workers to form a union remains unchanged. But the new law
prohibits the Ministry of Labour from passing on the list of signatories to factory owners. The
new labour law has also empowered the factory owners by allowing them to sack a worker who
was absent at his or her workplace for more than 10 days continuously.

The law would require prior approval from the Labour and Employment Ministry before either
trade unions or employer organisations could receive ‘technical, technological, health and safety
and financial support’ from international sources. The law contains important provisions
prohibiting discrimination based on sex and disability, including equal wages for equal work.
However, the revised law includes no measures to tackle sexual harassment of women, who
make up the vast majority of workers in the ready-made garment sector, Human Rights Watch
said. In offering amendments to the labour law, the government has missed an important
opportunity to carry out 2009 High Court guidelines against sexual harassment in the
workplaces.

Shortcoming of Bangladesh Labour Act ,2006:

Despite recent improvements described above, the mission, through factory visits and interviews
with various actors confirmed that major labour rights violations are still found in Bangladesh
factories, including:

 although unions exist as federations, they are de facto prohibited at the factory level;
participation committees, where they exist, consist of workers appointed by the
management while they should be chosen by the workers;
 No living wage: the legal minimum wage, where implemented, is insufficient to cover
basic needs; wages are paid with delay and overtime is often not paid in accordance with
the law;[17]
 No access to remedies;
 Excessive working hours, inappropriate maternity leave and benefits, harassment,
blocked exits, etc.
 At a view-exchange meeting at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium, she said a total of
80 percent workers would be deprived of its benefit as agricultural and domestic workers
have been kept out of its purview.
 The maternity leave has been extended to 16 weeks from 12 weeks, but the way it has
been fixed before and after giving birth to a child. It would not let the female workers to
enjoy the leave according to their needs, the said.
 The amount of compensation fixed for the workers in the law is not time worthy and it
should be re-fixed at Tk 3-5 lakh.
 Section 133 of the law provides that any due wages of a workman declared by a labour
court shall be recoverable as a Public Demand Recovery (PDR) at a district level civil
court. It implies a legal fight for a poor workman year after year to get his due wages. On
the other hand, any compensation unpaid by the factory owners, will be exactable in the
manner land revenue is collected. So, the question remains unanswered as to who is
going to recover the PDR and land revenue for a workman. In this regard Dr Shahdeen
 Malik, a lawyer of the High Court said, if an aggrieved labourer has to go to a certificate
court to recover his compensation and due wages, the labour court remains a quasi-court.

The law has been passed hurriedly keeping the labour fronts in the darkness. It limits the
employees from taking part in trade union activities as it provides that there can be only one
labour union in an entire industrial area. One of the fundamental aims of framing the Code afresh
annulling 27 old ones was to have a modern law. But unfortunately, it has been another outdated
law flawed with absence of adequate instruments to ensure welfare of the labourers, said legal
experts.

Recommendations:

1. Ensure adequate implementation of international covenants ratified by Bangladesh, and submit

initial report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR);

2. Ratify ILO conventions, among which the following deserve to be recognized a high level of
priority: ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981; IL Occupational Health
Services Convention, 1985, and ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and
Health Convention, 2006;

3. Ensure effective and impartial labour administration; increase effectiveness of Labour

inspections and Labour courts, notably by allocating adequate resources for their proper
functioning;

4. Revise and increase the minimum wage so as to ensure it covers basic needs;

5. Ensure that garment villages projects do not have adverse impacts on the enjoyment of human
rights and in particular on women’s rights;

6. Ensure that investment agreements do not contain provisions that may have a negative impact
on the enjoyment of human rights in Bangladesh. Conclusion: Labour problems constituted a
serious menace to the society, and needed solution, if not to eradicate then at least to mitigate
them in the very beginning. Employers paid their sole attention to the maintenance of machines
and the improvement of the technical knowhow to the utter neglect of the human hands
employed to man the machines because they were readily available and could be easily replaced.
Reference:
 Bangladesh labour act 2006.
 Bangladesh labour Law amendment 2013.
 http://www.assignmentpoint.com/arts/law/role-of-labor-and-industrial-law-in-
bangladesh.html
 https://www.slideshare.net/RobiulAwalTuhin/bangladesh-labor-law-64615273.
 Strengthening Labour Adjudication in Bangladesh