A lack of trust between garment workers and factory owners hinders mitigation of serious disputes, Mujibul Haque, state minister for labour, said yesterday.

“Social dialogue can play a vital role in mitigating such disputes," Haque said at the launch of a project designed to promote social dialogue and harmonious industrial relations in the garment indus-

try, atSonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

The distrust between the two parties arises from a lack of awareness about workers' rights and owners' responsibilities, the minister said.

When the government wants to allow unionism, owners rush to the minister fearing that their factories will be destroyed if unions are allowed in workplaces, Haque said. Similarly, when the government is ready to award licences for unionism, the workers and trade union leaders do not know the rules and their duties, he added.

Workers and trade union leaders approach the ministry for permission to form unions, but the ministry cannot award the licences if they do not follow rules, according to Haque.

“I think we should renew the system so that all parties can enjoy the benefit of such trade unions," said the minister, adding that there are more than 7,750 unions, but most of them are not valid. "We are planning to allow sector-wise trade unions to resolve the disputes."

A total of Tk 25 crore has been deposited into the central workers' welfare fund, as every garment exporter has been contributing 0.03 percent of the annual export value since July this year, he said.

From January next year, if any garment worker dies, his family will receive more thanTk 5 lakh from this fund as insurance.

The ministry will also give allowances to garment workers' children for higher education from this fund.

Guy Ryder, director general of the International Labour Organisation, said the project comes on top of a wide range of activities already undertaken by the ILO here in Bangladesh.

"Coming to the meeting, I look through all of the subjects that should be addressed in Bangladesh."

"With its focus on strengthening social dialogue and constructive dispute resolution, this project provides a

defining opportunity for Bangladesh to achieve its social and economic transformation goals, through partnership and inclusion," Ryder said.

Salahuddin Kasem Khan, president of Bangladesh Employers' Federation, said: "The creation of effective arbitration and conciliation systems will be a major step toward the development of a more mature industrial relations environment for Bangladesh that will benefit employers and workers alike."

"We need a harmonious workplace relationship between the workers and owners."

"We are assisting a national effort to build capacity for Bangladesh authorities in occupational health and safety, and in particular, focusing on the garment sector," said Morten Jespersen, under-secretary for global development and cooperation at Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This programme shows how the Global Deal initiative can translate into concrete action at the country level. Functioning social dialogue means both ensuring labour rights and securing long-term business," said Johan Frisell, ambassador of Sweden to Bangladesh.

"We had been on a long journey in Bangladesh to eradicate child labour from the RMG sector - a very successful journey."

"We believe that functioning social dialogue will make individual factories more compatible and more profitable. All together, this effect will mean that I think we can help a little bit to secure the accessibility of Bangladesh to the GSP Plus scheme."

The $7 million project, implemented by the ILO, started functioning in April this year and it will continue until March 2021, said an official of the ILO in Dhaka. Of the total amount, Sweden has given about $5 million and Denmark $2 million, the ILO official said.

The project will initially be piloted in the apparel sector, gradual scaling up within the sector.

However, the impact of the project, and particularly that of the dispute resolution mechanism, will cover all other sectors.

Through the project, improved dialogue will be fostered between trade unions and employers in at least 150 unionised enterprises.

This will be achieved by developing social dialogue skills and expertise of both managers and union representatives.

Workplace cooperation mechanisms and the capacity of unions and employers will also be boosted in 350 non-unionised factories, while practical grievance handling procedures will be developed in each of the 500 participating factories.

A key focus of the project will be on enhancing the grievance handling capacity, procedures and mechanisms of the Department of Labour. This will include training for 15-20 officials to create a national pool of conciliators.

An independent pool of arbitrators will also be established. In addition, Workers' Resource Centres will be established to support capacity building for unions and to help them deal with disputes.