The BBC Bengali Section has started broadcasting a special series of radio programmes since this week built around the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. These principles are: freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, freedom from discrimination, child labour and forced labour. An abridged version of the features will be published on this page every Friday. This is the first episode in the series, written and produced by Masud Hassan Khan.

THE uneasy day-break brings thousands of garment workers out of their shanty towns, and the streets of Dhaka are again alive with their footsteps. Columns of young women, clutching lunchboxes and umbrellas, meander through the lanes and by lanes, cross pot holes and puddles, and dodge speeding vehicles to reach their factories. This is an uneasy time for them. Five minutes late, you could lose your day's earning. Yet they make it to the factories, with dogged resolution to protect themselves and their folks from the immediate poverty and hunger, and from a distant uncertainty. Their choices are limited.

For millions of workers in Bangladesh, 'choice' is a word that often meant; the wrong choice'. Take, for example, the trade unions and the bodies which represent the workers in mills and factories. They were never short in numbers and the quantities hardly speak for the quality.

"Before independence, there were only a handful of registered unions, but they started mushrooming after 1971," says Nazrul Islam Khan, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, a cross political platform for the country's trade unionists. "The

figure now stands at 4,800 with around two million registered members."

Does it mean that workers are better organised and more aware of their rights at workplaces? Far from it. These organisations together represent less than only three per cent of the country's total workforce. Millions engaged in the informal sector never heard of the term "Freedom of Association". The usual reaction from some of the people in Dhaka on their rights at workplace is : "We know we've some rights, but we don't know what those are," "Because we are poor, we don't have the luxury of time to make a storm in the tea cup over our rights," "For us, it doesn't really matter, because we never had these rights." Well, some of the comments may be less than thoughtful, but what can you do about how the people feel.

But are these rights important? Oh yes, every one of them, says Dr. Abdul Hye Mandal, of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He says the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has so far formulated nearly 200 conventions which speak for the overall rights of the workers. Bangladesh government has ratified most of these conventions. The rights of the country's workers and employees are governed by 51 laws, he says, which are applicable to both the public and the private sectors. But he emphasised the need for quick implementation of the conventions as these represent Bangladesh's obligations and commitments as a sovereign and democratic state.

The right to collective bargaining is equally important for the employers, says Iftekharul Alam, President of the Bangladesh Employers'

Federation. "Their absence would certainly entail disruption and indiscipline, and could lead to unjust practices in hands of the employers," he says.

But what has the country achieved over the years in terms of protecting the trade union rights?

"The labour law has undergone great changes, better for the workers and employees," says Nazrul Islam Khan, "For example, the Trade Relations Act now forces the employers to attend the tripartite meeting. Previously, it was impossible," he says.

Shirin Akhter, a trade unionist, is not happy with the way the current trade union movement is making its headway since 1990s. She believes, the workers have been manipulated by the major political parties and their core demands have been lost on the way.

"The unity of the trade union

bodies are still preserved in the form of the Sramik Karmachhari Oikya Parishad, or the SKOP", Ms. Akhter says, "but its force has diminished since 1990s owing to undue influence of the political parties and a serious conflict of interest."

So, what lies ahead for trade unionism in Bangladesh? Most say the challenges, no doubt, would become bigger. Dr. Mandal believes the future decade would open up the floodgate of problems for both the workers, and the employers. Yet the relevance of the fundamental rights would become even more pronounced. The advice comes from Iftekharul Alam: more rights, more training and more discipline for the workers. When Bangladesh's export and industries face a potentially turbulent time after 2004, the workers and the employers would have to share the burden of increased responsibilities to face that uneasy time.

Masud Hassan Khan is a producer, BBC World Service.

The BBC Bengali Section will broadcast its next episode on Thursday, August 14, an abridged version of which will be published on this page on August 15.