A visiting European Union delegation led by Paola Pampaloni, deputy managing director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the European External Action Service, on Tuesday (November 14) held separate meetings with the government representatives and labour leaders.
The meeting with the trade union leaders highlighted the amendment of the labour act, progress on trade union registration, unfair labour practices and Essential Services Bill, 2023, said labour leaders following the meeting.
They also discussed the ongoing street protests of the readymade garment workers demanding pay hike, death of four workers during the demonstrations and the filing of cases against several hundred workers were.
EU ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley, later on the day, tweeted on social media X (formerly twitter) that they had wide-ranging exchanges on labour and human rights with senior government figures, including state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian and principal secretary to the prime minister M Tofazzel Hossain Miah.
Regarding the amendment of Bangladesh Labour Act, labour leaders alleged that the government passed the latest amendment bypassing the meeting of the tripartite consultation committee and many of the recommendations from the trade unions were not accommodated in the amendment.
According to the meeting sources, the trade union registration process has yet to simplify, while the minimum membership threshold still remains a major obstacle barring registration.
Bangladesh Trade Union Sangha secretary Chowdhury Ashikul Alam, Industrial Bangladesh Council president Amirul Haque Amin, former IBC secretary general Md Towhidur Rahman and Sammilita Garment Shramik Federation president Nazma Akhter, among others, attended the meeting.
The EU delegation arrived in Dhaka on Sunday on a five-day visit to assess the implementation of the national action plan on the labour sector of Bangladesh to qualify for the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus in the European Union after the country’s graduation into developing country status.
BDST: 0842 HRS, NOV 15, 2023
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