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Vidiya Amrit Khan, a director of the BGMEA, called for carrying out research beyond garment industries as they also needed to be compliant.

Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, a specialist for worker activities at the ILO office in New Delhi, said in most cases, the labour disputes in the industrial sector were settled verbally although the laws were there.

At the event, the findings of a study on the “State of the UNGPs in the RMG sector of Bangladesh” were shared.

The study was conducted in 600 garment factories in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Chattogram to know the level of awareness about the UNGPs on business and human rights. Some 606 workers from 200 factories were covered in the study.

According to the study paper, the garment sector is way behind in institutionalising UNGPs.

The concept of UNGPs is not fully clear to the garment manufacturers, although they understand human and labour rights. Despite diverge levels of human and labour rights practices at the factory level, those marginally adhere to the UNGPs.

“Overall, the practice of UNGPs in the RMG sector is still at the early stage,” it said.

The report said the process of institutionalisation of UNGPs had yet to be started in the garment industry. A binding treaty in case of enforcement of UNGPs would facilitate the process. The first step will be to strengthen the UNGP reporting system of factories.

While presenting the key findings, Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the CPD, said about 74 per cent workers recalled they had seen posters inside or outside the factory that contained messages on human rights.

Ninety-one per cent of workers said the poster contained messages related to child labour. Statements related to workplace and sexual harassment, living wage and maternity benefit were seen by more than 50 per cent of workers.

The least addressed public disclosure issues are layoff and retrenchments and collective bargaining.

About 8.7 per cent of workers saw messages related to layoff and retrenchment and 16 per cent on collective bargain, Moazzem said.

“Such a guideline will be highly beneficial for garment factories to understand the issues, take measures and improve practices.”

Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the CPD, said although the garment sector had shown impressive growth in the post-Rana Plaza period, there were a number of social compliance issues that required attention.

Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the CPD, moderated the discussion. Pankaj Kumar, country director of the Christian Aid, also spoke.