Accepting there has been a significant improvement when it comes to workplace safety in the readymade garment industry, labour leaders in Bangladesh underlined that trade union rights were ignored often in the industry.
The labour leaders reportedly underlined this while attending a recent seminar on ‘10 years achievement on Occupational Health and Safety in Bangladesh’, organised jointly by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) in Dhaka even as they held despite representations in many tripartite committees, their recommendations were often ignored.
Addressing the seminar, General Secretary of IndustriAll Bangladesh Council, Kutub Uddin Ahmed reportedly stated there were eight out of top 10 green and environment-friendly garment factories globally in Bangladesh but none of them have trade unions even as he reportedly added that there were more than 100 green factories in the country (Bangladesh) but trade unions were almost absent in those, he reportedly said.
The IndustriAll Bangladesh Council General Secretary further reportedly said workers’ rights and economic development would not be ensured without allowing free and fair trade union practices in the industrial sector.
