Let EPZ workers unionise: Rights activists

Labour rights advocates have called upon the authorities concerned to take steps to reform the Bangladesh EPZ Labour Act, 2019 to ensure workers' rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.

At the roundtable on "Workers' Rights in the EPZ-The Reality" held at a city hotel on Wednesday, they opined that the act prohibits EPZ workers from enjoying fundamental worker rights and keeps them in different status from the rest of the country's workers.

Solidarity Center-Bangladesh office hosted the event under its USAID's Awareness Raising Training Program for Garment, Domestic, and Migrant Workers in Bangladesh, said a press release.

As per Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (Bepza) data, at present, around 516,588 workers are employed in EPZs, of which 66% are women. Exports from EPZs increased to eight and a half billion dollars in the fiscal year 2021-2022, and 54% of this export income came from the garment sector.

Monika Hartsel, Solidarity Center-Bangladesh deputy country director, said, "Without the ability to form and join unions, workers are not able to engage in effective collective bargaining with their employers over the terms and conditions of their work."

Commenting on the status of workers' rights in EPZs, Advocate Salim Ahsan Khan said, "The EPZ Act allows workers to form Workers Welfare Association. But through this association, they are prohibited from establishing any kind of connections with any NGOs, trade unions, or federations outside the EPZ."

"Now the newly formulated EPZ Labour Rule prohibits the workers further from getting involved in any political parties. So, the ability of the EPZ workers to seek reparation for the violation of their labour rights is very limited."

Solidarity Center-Bangladesh Country Program Director AKM Nasim said, "EPZ Labour Act allows workers to form workers' welfare associations. But if Bepza does not allow it, nobody has the power to form an association inside the EPZs. They only allow their prescribed methods."

District and Session Judge M A Awal, also a member of the Labour Appellate Tribunal, said, "In all the developed countries, laws are formulated with consultation of the relevant stakeholders. Here, we formulate laws without concerning the stakeholders. As a result, it needs continuous amendment. There is no necessity for separate labour laws for EPZ workers."

International Labor Organization Bangladesh Country Director Tomo Poutiainen said, "If you allow EPZ workers to form an association and collectively bargain, it enhances the quality of the worker-management relationship and opens new possibilities."