The EPZ Labour Law 2016, draft of which was approved on Monday by cabinet, will provide workers in the country’s eight Export Processing Zones a legal platform to enjoy compensation, provident fund, group insurance, encasement of earned leaves, festival bonus, maternity leave. “According to the draft law, workers will enjoy compensation for injury and death, provident fund, group insurance, encasement of earned leaves, festival bonus, maternity leave with full wage, training to enhance productivity and skill and transportation facilities, seeking anonymity a high official told the Dhaka Tribune. As per the EPZ Workers’ Welfare Association and Industrial Relations Act, 2010, there were no instructions about the workers rights and benefits. There were instructions on how to form Workers Welfare Association (WWA) and also bar to lock out, he said. Though there were these benefits for the workers, it had no legal base, which has been integrated in the drafted rule, which aimed at empowering workers to raise their voice for rights, he added. Earlier these benefits were provided through instructions. They will get right to works as full-fledged collective bargaining agents under the WWA but the workers have to go through election to elect leaders and can be affiliated with the federations, he adds. On Sunday, the cabinet gave approval to the draft “Bangladesh EPZ Labour Law 2016”, keeping provisions for forming legal trade unions in factories inside the Export Processing Zones (EPZ), a long standing demand of the international rights group as well as the global retailers. Meanwhile, the workers’ leader claimed that the EPZs workers will not be able to enjoy full-fledged trade unionism. By an association, it is not possible to ensure facilities of unionism, Nazma Akter, president of Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation, told the Dhaka Tribune. “We want full-fledged trade union to ensure workers rights inside and outside of the EPZs in the country and the government has to do it,” she said. “Before formulating the drafted law, BEPZ talked to WWA leaders, entrepreneurs so that wevery ones’ vice can be included in the amendment,” Nazma Binte Alamgir, general manager, public relations of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) told the Dhaka Tribune. Now, the workers’ associations will get legal status, which was not in the existing law, to form trade union in factories inside the EPZs, said Nazma. The workers will practice under WWA, she added. Currently, eight EPZs employed over 4.2 lakh workers in its 453 factories.
