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23 January, 2012
Hundreds of garment workers staged a symbolic sit-in strike on 16 January in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, demanding that Parliament takes up and passes a key piece of labour legislation.
The legislation has been ready for presentation in Parliament for three years, but the Labour Ministry has stalled the process. Demonstrating workers warned of mass mobilisations before the Labour Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office, and Parliament if the bill is not considered during the next session which begins, which begins this Wednesday, 25 January.
The demonstration was organised by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), a highly-active trade union affiliate of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).
NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin led speeches which included contributions of numerous labour leaders. All speakers agreed that the existing labour law of 2006 runs against the rights of workers, but also against industrial development, and is the cause of much labour unrest across the industrial sectors.
The current government of Bangladesh repeatedly promised to amend the unjust labour law, both before and after the last general election in December 2008. The existing draft amendment was prepared through a long, tripartite process, consisting of viewpoints from workers, government and employers. But the draft amendment has been held up inside the Labour Ministry for the last three years. In that time three separate labour bills have been adopted by parliament. The first suspended trade union rights inside the country’s Economic Processing Zones, the second exonerates factory owners from serving jail time for breaking labour laws, and the third also increases the rights of employers over workers.