Star Business Report

The appellate tribunal should be designed like the administrative appellate tribunal to put an end to the harassment faced by workers when it comes to settlement of disputes, said a lawmaker yesterday.

When a verdict goes in favour of workers at the labour court, many factory owners appeal against it with the tribunal.

It takes a lot of time and money for workers to have the appeal settled, although in most cases, the disputed amount varies between Tk 60,000 and Tk 1 lakh, said Md Mojibul Haque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry.

As a result, the verdict is delayed and workers lose interest in fighting the case, he said.

“If the labour appellate tribunal acts like the administrative tribunal, workers will get the judgement within a stipulated time, and it will be helpful for them.”

The former state minister was speaking at a virtual dialogue on “Building the RMG Sector in Adherence with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs)”, organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in partnership with the Christian Aid in Bangladesh.

The lawmaker said there were many loopholes in the labour law.

“The ministry will take initiative to amend the labour law again. I have a plan to suggest the ministry incorporate the amendment of the labour appellate tribunal,” said the former state minister for labour and employment.

Haque called for setting up more dormitories for garment workers by taking loans from the central bank at 2 per cent interest rate.

Md Ehsan-E-Elahi, labour secretary, said Bangladesh was going to ratify the 138 Convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to determine the minimum age of workers.

He said the ministry could disburse only Tk 7 crore to Tk 8 crore from the fund of the European Union and Germany, and the rest of the amount was lying idle as the list of the affected workers could not be found.

Last year, the EU and Germany gave 113 million euro to Bangladesh to disburse among the workers of the export-oriented garment and leather sectors hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ministry has a target to disburse the money among 72,000 workers with Tk 3,000 each for three months.

“We are going through a very tough time as we are struggling to revive our business from the fallouts of Covid-19,” said Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Mohammad Hatem, first vice-president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said international buyers always spoke about ethics but they had not maintained the ethical standards during the pandemic and indiscriminately cancelled or suspended orders and demanded unusual deferred payment.