GARMENT workers face daunting challenges to unionization, and remain at risk of interference and threats by factories three years after the Rana Plaza building collapse, Human Rights Watch mentioned in its recent report on labour rights situation in Bangladesh. The report mentioned that the Bangladesh government should urgently remove legal and practical obstacles to unionization.
The April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse killed 1,100 garment workers and injured many others. In July 2013 the Bangladesh government committed to a Sustainability Compact with the European Union, pledging to reform labour laws. Yet its laws and rules governing labour rights and Export Processing Zones still have rigid union restrictions, in violation of International Law.
None of the factory workers in the Rana Plaza collapse belonged to trade unions. If they did, they would probably still be alive as they would have the power to resist their employers who forced them to work in a building in which large cracks appeared. Similarly the workers who died in the Tazreen Fashions fire would have been more powerful and perhaps still alive as they were forced to work in the factory even when the fires were already threatening the factory.
Only about 10 percent of Bangladesh’s more than 4,500 garment factories have registered unions. While many factory workers have tried to form unions, government authorities have frequently rejected applications. Bangladesh labour laws and procedures pose formidable barriers to founding and operating a union. The labour law requires an unreasonably high 30 percent of workers in a factory to agree to form a union and mandates excessive registration procedures. The government has vaguely defined powers to cancel a union’s registration.
Factories also threaten and attack unions and their members with impunity. Human Rights Watch has documented cases of physical assault, intimidation and threats, dismissal of union leaders, and false criminal complaints by factory officials or their associates against garment workers. The Bangladesh authorities have failed to hold factory officials accountable for attacks, threats, and retaliation against workers involved with unions.
Instead of streamlining registration procedures, the Bangladesh government issued Labour Rules in September 2015 making the registration procedure more burdensome. The situation in Export Processing Zones is even worse. The law governing these zones does not allow workers to form unions. They can only form “Worker Welfare Associations,” which, by restricting the type of organization that the workers can join, fail to meet international standards on freedom of association.
It is apparent that some sort of an organsiation is needed which will protect the rights of the workers. Assuming all employers to be benevolent angels is not a good idea-as Rana Plaza and Tazreen have aptly demonstrated. However a union which is too powerful and becomes politically active is also not a good idea. We need an organisation which will stay true to the idea of protecting workers’ rights without becoming politically active or creating chaos.This must occur for workers to actually feel powerful enough to have a say in their own workplaces so that future Rana Plaza incidents are averted and no further lives are lost.
The April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse killed 1,100 garment workers and injured many others. In July 2013 the Bangladesh government committed to a Sustainability Compact with the European Union, pledging to reform labour laws. Yet its laws and rules governing labour rights and Export Processing Zones still have rigid union restrictions, in violation of International Law.
None of the factory workers in the Rana Plaza collapse belonged to trade unions. If they did, they would probably still be alive as they would have the power to resist their employers who forced them to work in a building in which large cracks appeared. Similarly the workers who died in the Tazreen Fashions fire would have been more powerful and perhaps still alive as they were forced to work in the factory even when the fires were already threatening the factory.
Only about 10 percent of Bangladesh’s more than 4,500 garment factories have registered unions. While many factory workers have tried to form unions, government authorities have frequently rejected applications. Bangladesh labour laws and procedures pose formidable barriers to founding and operating a union. The labour law requires an unreasonably high 30 percent of workers in a factory to agree to form a union and mandates excessive registration procedures. The government has vaguely defined powers to cancel a union’s registration.
Factories also threaten and attack unions and their members with impunity. Human Rights Watch has documented cases of physical assault, intimidation and threats, dismissal of union leaders, and false criminal complaints by factory officials or their associates against garment workers. The Bangladesh authorities have failed to hold factory officials accountable for attacks, threats, and retaliation against workers involved with unions.
Instead of streamlining registration procedures, the Bangladesh government issued Labour Rules in September 2015 making the registration procedure more burdensome. The situation in Export Processing Zones is even worse. The law governing these zones does not allow workers to form unions. They can only form “Worker Welfare Associations,” which, by restricting the type of organization that the workers can join, fail to meet international standards on freedom of association.
It is apparent that some sort of an organsiation is needed which will protect the rights of the workers. Assuming all employers to be benevolent angels is not a good idea-as Rana Plaza and Tazreen have aptly demonstrated. However a union which is too powerful and becomes politically active is also not a good idea. We need an organisation which will stay true to the idea of protecting workers’ rights without becoming politically active or creating chaos.This must occur for workers to actually feel powerful enough to have a say in their own workplaces so that future Rana Plaza incidents are averted and no further lives are lost.
