TUC News :
The TUC has written to British MEPs to support a call by global unions for the European Parliament to investigate Bangladesh’s poor workers’ rights record under the terms of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), by which Bangladesh gains duty and quota-free access to the EU for all their exports excepts armaments. In return, Bangladesh is supposed to abide by core International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.
The TUC has long been campaigning for the improvement of human and labour rights in Bangladesh, and more recently for the compensation of workers and their families after the Rana Plaza incident. Thanks to this pressure most UK brands have now signed the Bangladesh Accord for Fire & Safety, a binding agreement that requires brands to ensure safe working in their supply chains and to respect freedom of association.
However, Bangladesh’s government remains hostile to trade unions,
making it hard for them to register and is slack about enforcing what protections exist to help unions represent their members. The government’s refusal to apply its own laws continues to leave workers vulnerable to serious injury and death.
Since December 2016, the government has launched an all-out attack on trade union activists and organisations operating in the garment sector and it clearly feels it is able to act with impunity as the traditional policy of dialogue, preferred by the EU, is currently failing. Although international pressure has now wrung key concessions from the government, the overall picture for labour rights in Bangladesh remains precarious.
A strong reaction to the recent crackdown is necessary to make it clear that the government has overstepped the mark and that continued refusal to respect fundamental labour rights will have consequences.
Thus we are asking MEPs to support the immediate launch of an investigation under the GSP into the serious and systematic violations of fundamental labour rights in the country.
On behalf of the TUC, its 50 affiliated unions and 5.7million British workers, I am asking members of the European Parliament to support the immediate launch of an investigation under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) into the serious and systematic violations of fundamental labour rights in Bangladesh. Despite it having agreed to the EU Sustainability Compact for Bangladesh in 2013, which committed it to enact legislative reforms and respect fundamental labour rights, the government of Bangladesh has instead engaged in widespread and systemic violations of the right to freedom of association.
The TUC has written to British MEPs to support a call by global unions for the European Parliament to investigate Bangladesh’s poor workers’ rights record under the terms of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), by which Bangladesh gains duty and quota-free access to the EU for all their exports excepts armaments. In return, Bangladesh is supposed to abide by core International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.
The TUC has long been campaigning for the improvement of human and labour rights in Bangladesh, and more recently for the compensation of workers and their families after the Rana Plaza incident. Thanks to this pressure most UK brands have now signed the Bangladesh Accord for Fire & Safety, a binding agreement that requires brands to ensure safe working in their supply chains and to respect freedom of association.
However, Bangladesh’s government remains hostile to trade unions,
making it hard for them to register and is slack about enforcing what protections exist to help unions represent their members. The government’s refusal to apply its own laws continues to leave workers vulnerable to serious injury and death.
Since December 2016, the government has launched an all-out attack on trade union activists and organisations operating in the garment sector and it clearly feels it is able to act with impunity as the traditional policy of dialogue, preferred by the EU, is currently failing. Although international pressure has now wrung key concessions from the government, the overall picture for labour rights in Bangladesh remains precarious.
A strong reaction to the recent crackdown is necessary to make it clear that the government has overstepped the mark and that continued refusal to respect fundamental labour rights will have consequences.
Thus we are asking MEPs to support the immediate launch of an investigation under the GSP into the serious and systematic violations of fundamental labour rights in the country.
On behalf of the TUC, its 50 affiliated unions and 5.7million British workers, I am asking members of the European Parliament to support the immediate launch of an investigation under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) into the serious and systematic violations of fundamental labour rights in Bangladesh. Despite it having agreed to the EU Sustainability Compact for Bangladesh in 2013, which committed it to enact legislative reforms and respect fundamental labour rights, the government of Bangladesh has instead engaged in widespread and systemic violations of the right to freedom of association.
