Bangladesh cabinet approved the Bangladesh Labor Code Bill, seeking enactment of a new, comprehensive and uniform labor law that will codify all of the existing 27 laws on labor and industrial relations.
Enactment of a uniform and modern labor code, codifying and updating the existing labor laws of the land, is a longstanding demand of the labor movements.
According to the latest agreement with the labor organizations, the government was scheduled to place the Labor Code Bill in the Jatiya Sangsad by April 30, 2004.
The law minister, trying to justify the delay, said, ‘It is a gigantic work as the draft bill has been prepared incorporating and updating all the provisions of the existing 27 laws on labor, and the bill was finalized after a series of pre-legislative consultations with the concerned labor organizations and chambers of commerce and industries, and experts.
‘Even most of the countries of the world, including neighboring countries, are yet to enact such a comprehensive and uniform labor code,’ he claimed.
If enacted, the law will repeal 27 existing laws on labor and industrial relations including Workmen’s’
The bill has incorporated all the necessary provisions of those laws in its 353 sections detailed in 21 chapters, said sources present at the meeting of the cabinet.
According to the bill, the workers of any factory will enjoy the right to form, or to be involved in, trade unions.
No person, who is not employed or does not work in the factory, will be eligible to be elected as a leader of the factory’s trade union, says the bill.
According to the bill, no owner will have the right to engage any worker without a proper appointment letter. He will have to maintain a service book for each of his workers at his own cost. He will also have to maintain a register of the workers, and the register will be open all the time for inspection by the inspector of factories.
The bill proposes the provision for prohibiting engagement of any child (below the age of 14 years) in any profession or institution. Though the bill proposes provision for allowing engagement of an adolescent (between 14 and 18 years of age) in a profession or institution, it will need a certificate of fitness of the adolescent for the work by a registered physician.
According to the bill, no adolescent will be allowed to work more than five hours a day or 30 hours a week. No adolescent or woman will be allowed to work in a factory or shop between 10pm to 6am.
No woman will be allowed to work in any institution within eight weeks after giving birth to a baby. A mother will enjoy maternity welfare for eight weeks before the expected date of her delivery and for another eight weeks after the delivery. The maternity welfare includes leave, gross salary, etc.
The bill proposes detailed provisions for ensuring health, good environment and security for the workers in any factory, shop or other institutions.
