(From previous issue) :
Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor. Penalties for forced or bonded labor offenses are five to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than 50,000 taka ($625). Inspection mechanisms that enforce laws against forced labor did not function effectively. Resources, inspections, and remediation efforts were inadequate. The law also provides that victims of forced labor have access to shelter and other protective services afforded to trafficking victims.
Some individuals recruited to work overseas with fraudulent employment offers subsequently were exploited abroad under conditions of forced labor or debt bondage.
Some instances of bonded labor and domestic service were reported, predominately in rural areas. Children and adults were forced into domestic servitude and bonded labor that involved restricted movement, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse (see section 7.c.).
See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.
c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
The law regulates child employment, depending on the type of work and the child’s age. The minimum age for work is 14, and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18. The law allows for certain exceptions, permitting children who are ages 12 or 13 to perform restricted forms of light work. By law every child must attend school through fifth grade; 2013 amendments to the Labor Act further restrict adolescents’ work in hazardous areas.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment’s enforcement mechanisms were insufficient for the large, urban informal sector, and there was little enforcement of child labor laws outside the export garment and shrimp-processing sectors. Agriculture and other informal sectors that had no government oversight employed large numbers of children.
Under the Ministry of Labor and Employment’s Child Labor National Plan of Action, the National Child Labor Welfare Council is charged with monitoring child labor at district and subdistrict levels. The government mandated child protection networks at district and subdistrict levels to respond to a broad spectrum of violations against children, including child labor; monitor interventions; and develop referral mechanisms.
The government also developed a national program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2015. The program includes monitoring workplaces and education for children and their families. The law specifies penalties for child labor violations, typically nominal fines of less than 5,000 taka ($62.50). These penalties were insufficient to deter violations. The government occasionally brought criminal charges against employers who abused domestic servants, but in general, resources, inspections, and remedial action were inadequate.
Child labor was widespread, particularly in the informal sector and in domestic work. The ILO estimated 3.7 million children worked and that 1.3 million worked in hazardous sectors. Children were engaged in the worst forms of child labor, primarily in dangerous activities in agriculture. Children working in agriculture risked using dangerous tools, carrying heavy loads, and applying harmful pesticides. Children frequently worked long hours, were exposed to extreme temperatures, and suffered high rates of injury from sharp tools. Children also worked in such hazardous activities as stone breaking, dyeing operations, blacksmith assistance, and construction. Forced child labor was present in the fish-drying industry, which exposed them to harmful chemicals, dangerous machines, and long hours of work. In urban areas street children engaged in work such as begging, working as porters, shining shoes, collecting paper, and selling flowers. These children were vulnerable to exploitation, for example, being used to smuggle or sell drugs.
Children frequently worked in the informal sector in areas including the garment, road transport, manufacturing, and service industries. A 2012 survey of the unregistered garment sector in Dhaka, by the consulting firm ICF International, found that approximately one-third of workers were under age 18. The children in the survey reported they worked an average of six days a week for 10.5 hours a day.
See the Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at www.dol.gov/ ilab/reports/ child-labor/findings/.
The labor law prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of sex or disability, but it does not prohibit other discrimination based on sex, disability, social status, or similar factors. The constitution prohibits adverse discrimination by the state on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth and expressly extends that prohibition to government employment; it allows affirmative action programs for the benefit of disadvantaged populations. The government generally enforced these laws and regulations.
While wages for similar work within the garment sector were equal, women were generally underrepresented in supervisory and management positions. Some religious, ethnic, and other minorities reported discrimination, particularly in the private sector (see section 6.).
The National Minimum Wage Board established minimum monthly wages on a sector-by-sector basis, with a lowest minimum wage of 1,500 taka ($18.75). The board may convene at any time, but it must meet every five years in a tripartite forum to set wage structures and benefits industry by industry.
By law the government may modify or amend existing wage structures through official public announcement in consultation with employers and workers. In the garment industry, the board set the minimum monthly wage at 5,300 taka ($66.25). Wages in the apparel sector often were higher than the minimum wage, and wages in the EPZs typically were higher than general wage levels. None of the set minimum wages provided a sufficient standard of living for urban dwellers. The Center for Policy Dialogue, an independent think tank, reported a monthly wage of 6,725 taka ($84) was reasonable to cover living expenses for a typical garment-sector worker. The minimum wage was not indexed to inflation (which averaged 7 to 8 percent annually), but the board occasionally made cost-of-living adjustments to wages in some sectors.
By law a standard workday is eight hours. A standard workweek is 48 hours but may be extended to 60 hours, subject to the payment of an overtime allowance that is double the basic wage. Overtime cannot be compulsory. Workers must have one hour of rest if they work for more than eight hours a day or a half-hour of rest for more than five hours’ work a day. Factory workers receive one day off every week. Shop workers receive one and one-half days off per week. The law establishes occupational health and safety standards, and recent amendments to the law created mandatory worker safety committees.
The government did not effectively enforce minimum wage, hours of work, and occupational safety and health standards in all sectors. Resources, inspections, and remediation were not adequate, and penalties for violations were not sufficient to deter violations.
The 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse killed 1,138 workers and injured more than 2,500. Authorities charged the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, and others with criminal negligence and violations of the building code. While Rana was granted bail on the building code charges, he remained in custody on the other charges. Hundreds of former workers and relatives of the deceased continued to await back pay and compensation. In the aftermath of the collapse, private companies, foreign governments, and international organizations worked with the government to inspect more than 2,000 garment factories as of September, leading to 29 closures for imminent danger to human life. Many factories began to take action to improve safety conditions.
Workers’ groups stated that the occupational safety and health standards established by law were sufficient but not routinely enforced. An exception was the garment industry, where independent inspections and worker education programs increased awareness of safety problems. While enforcement by the Ministry of Labor and Employment’s industrial inspectors was weak due to the low number of labor inspectors, the inspection department reported that it recruited more than 200 inspectors during the year and increased its total staff from 314 to 993, of whom 575 were inspectors, although many of these positions were still being filled.
Inspections were supposed to be unannounced, but inspectors sometimes notified factory owners of coming inspections. The law provides for a maximum fine of 25,000 taka ($312.50) for noncompliance, but this did not deter violations.
Legal limits on hours of work were violated routinely. In the ready-made garment sector, employers often required workers to labor 12 hours a day or more to meet export deadlines, but they did not always properly compensate workers for their time. According to the Solidarity Center, workers often willingly worked overtime in excess of the legal limit. Employers commonly delayed workers’ pay or denied full leave benefits.
Safety conditions at many workplaces were extremely poor, but the Solidarity Center and others reported significant safety improvements in the garment sector. Because of high unemployment rates and inadequate law enforcement, workers who demanded redress for dangerous working conditions or who refused to work under hazardous conditions sometimes risked losing their jobs.
Factory fires continued throughout the year, with the Solidarity Center reporting 10 incidents through September, compared with 32 in all of 2013. In May a fire originating in an electrical short circuit at the Kamaphuli Knitting and Siddique Knitting Fashion Park International Ltd. sock factories in Chittagong killed Arafat Rani and Iftekar Ahmed. In July a fire at the S. S. Sweater Ltd. factory in Gazipur injured 10 workers.
Delwar Hossain, owner of Tazreen Fashions where a 2012 fire killed 112 workers, was arrested in February. He was later freed on bail to allow him to resolve a hunger strike by unpaid workers at the Tuba Group, another of his garment factories. Hossain closed the Tuba factory and remained free as of October.
Few reliable labor statistics were available on the large informal sector in which the majority of citizens worked, and it was difficult to enforce labor laws in the sector.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2010 Labor Force Survey reported the informal sector employed 47.3 million of the 56.7 million workers in the country.
(Abridged)
(Concluded)
Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor. Penalties for forced or bonded labor offenses are five to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than 50,000 taka ($625). Inspection mechanisms that enforce laws against forced labor did not function effectively. Resources, inspections, and remediation efforts were inadequate. The law also provides that victims of forced labor have access to shelter and other protective services afforded to trafficking victims.
Some individuals recruited to work overseas with fraudulent employment offers subsequently were exploited abroad under conditions of forced labor or debt bondage.
Some instances of bonded labor and domestic service were reported, predominately in rural areas. Children and adults were forced into domestic servitude and bonded labor that involved restricted movement, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse (see section 7.c.).
See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.
c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
The law regulates child employment, depending on the type of work and the child’s age. The minimum age for work is 14, and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18. The law allows for certain exceptions, permitting children who are ages 12 or 13 to perform restricted forms of light work. By law every child must attend school through fifth grade; 2013 amendments to the Labor Act further restrict adolescents’ work in hazardous areas.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment’s enforcement mechanisms were insufficient for the large, urban informal sector, and there was little enforcement of child labor laws outside the export garment and shrimp-processing sectors. Agriculture and other informal sectors that had no government oversight employed large numbers of children.
Under the Ministry of Labor and Employment’s Child Labor National Plan of Action, the National Child Labor Welfare Council is charged with monitoring child labor at district and subdistrict levels. The government mandated child protection networks at district and subdistrict levels to respond to a broad spectrum of violations against children, including child labor; monitor interventions; and develop referral mechanisms.
The government also developed a national program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2015. The program includes monitoring workplaces and education for children and their families. The law specifies penalties for child labor violations, typically nominal fines of less than 5,000 taka ($62.50). These penalties were insufficient to deter violations. The government occasionally brought criminal charges against employers who abused domestic servants, but in general, resources, inspections, and remedial action were inadequate.
Child labor was widespread, particularly in the informal sector and in domestic work. The ILO estimated 3.7 million children worked and that 1.3 million worked in hazardous sectors. Children were engaged in the worst forms of child labor, primarily in dangerous activities in agriculture. Children working in agriculture risked using dangerous tools, carrying heavy loads, and applying harmful pesticides. Children frequently worked long hours, were exposed to extreme temperatures, and suffered high rates of injury from sharp tools. Children also worked in such hazardous activities as stone breaking, dyeing operations, blacksmith assistance, and construction. Forced child labor was present in the fish-drying industry, which exposed them to harmful chemicals, dangerous machines, and long hours of work. In urban areas street children engaged in work such as begging, working as porters, shining shoes, collecting paper, and selling flowers. These children were vulnerable to exploitation, for example, being used to smuggle or sell drugs.
Children frequently worked in the informal sector in areas including the garment, road transport, manufacturing, and service industries. A 2012 survey of the unregistered garment sector in Dhaka, by the consulting firm ICF International, found that approximately one-third of workers were under age 18. The children in the survey reported they worked an average of six days a week for 10.5 hours a day.
See the Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at www.dol.gov/ ilab/reports/ child-labor/findings/.
The labor law prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of sex or disability, but it does not prohibit other discrimination based on sex, disability, social status, or similar factors. The constitution prohibits adverse discrimination by the state on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth and expressly extends that prohibition to government employment; it allows affirmative action programs for the benefit of disadvantaged populations. The government generally enforced these laws and regulations.
While wages for similar work within the garment sector were equal, women were generally underrepresented in supervisory and management positions. Some religious, ethnic, and other minorities reported discrimination, particularly in the private sector (see section 6.).
The National Minimum Wage Board established minimum monthly wages on a sector-by-sector basis, with a lowest minimum wage of 1,500 taka ($18.75). The board may convene at any time, but it must meet every five years in a tripartite forum to set wage structures and benefits industry by industry.
By law the government may modify or amend existing wage structures through official public announcement in consultation with employers and workers. In the garment industry, the board set the minimum monthly wage at 5,300 taka ($66.25). Wages in the apparel sector often were higher than the minimum wage, and wages in the EPZs typically were higher than general wage levels. None of the set minimum wages provided a sufficient standard of living for urban dwellers. The Center for Policy Dialogue, an independent think tank, reported a monthly wage of 6,725 taka ($84) was reasonable to cover living expenses for a typical garment-sector worker. The minimum wage was not indexed to inflation (which averaged 7 to 8 percent annually), but the board occasionally made cost-of-living adjustments to wages in some sectors.
By law a standard workday is eight hours. A standard workweek is 48 hours but may be extended to 60 hours, subject to the payment of an overtime allowance that is double the basic wage. Overtime cannot be compulsory. Workers must have one hour of rest if they work for more than eight hours a day or a half-hour of rest for more than five hours’ work a day. Factory workers receive one day off every week. Shop workers receive one and one-half days off per week. The law establishes occupational health and safety standards, and recent amendments to the law created mandatory worker safety committees.
The government did not effectively enforce minimum wage, hours of work, and occupational safety and health standards in all sectors. Resources, inspections, and remediation were not adequate, and penalties for violations were not sufficient to deter violations.
The 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse killed 1,138 workers and injured more than 2,500. Authorities charged the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, and others with criminal negligence and violations of the building code. While Rana was granted bail on the building code charges, he remained in custody on the other charges. Hundreds of former workers and relatives of the deceased continued to await back pay and compensation. In the aftermath of the collapse, private companies, foreign governments, and international organizations worked with the government to inspect more than 2,000 garment factories as of September, leading to 29 closures for imminent danger to human life. Many factories began to take action to improve safety conditions.
Workers’ groups stated that the occupational safety and health standards established by law were sufficient but not routinely enforced. An exception was the garment industry, where independent inspections and worker education programs increased awareness of safety problems. While enforcement by the Ministry of Labor and Employment’s industrial inspectors was weak due to the low number of labor inspectors, the inspection department reported that it recruited more than 200 inspectors during the year and increased its total staff from 314 to 993, of whom 575 were inspectors, although many of these positions were still being filled.
Inspections were supposed to be unannounced, but inspectors sometimes notified factory owners of coming inspections. The law provides for a maximum fine of 25,000 taka ($312.50) for noncompliance, but this did not deter violations.
Legal limits on hours of work were violated routinely. In the ready-made garment sector, employers often required workers to labor 12 hours a day or more to meet export deadlines, but they did not always properly compensate workers for their time. According to the Solidarity Center, workers often willingly worked overtime in excess of the legal limit. Employers commonly delayed workers’ pay or denied full leave benefits.
Safety conditions at many workplaces were extremely poor, but the Solidarity Center and others reported significant safety improvements in the garment sector. Because of high unemployment rates and inadequate law enforcement, workers who demanded redress for dangerous working conditions or who refused to work under hazardous conditions sometimes risked losing their jobs.
Factory fires continued throughout the year, with the Solidarity Center reporting 10 incidents through September, compared with 32 in all of 2013. In May a fire originating in an electrical short circuit at the Kamaphuli Knitting and Siddique Knitting Fashion Park International Ltd. sock factories in Chittagong killed Arafat Rani and Iftekar Ahmed. In July a fire at the S. S. Sweater Ltd. factory in Gazipur injured 10 workers.
Delwar Hossain, owner of Tazreen Fashions where a 2012 fire killed 112 workers, was arrested in February. He was later freed on bail to allow him to resolve a hunger strike by unpaid workers at the Tuba Group, another of his garment factories. Hossain closed the Tuba factory and remained free as of October.
Few reliable labor statistics were available on the large informal sector in which the majority of citizens worked, and it was difficult to enforce labor laws in the sector.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2010 Labor Force Survey reported the informal sector employed 47.3 million of the 56.7 million workers in the country.
(Abridged)
(Concluded)
