A high-powered delegation of European Commission has concluded its six-day mission on assessing labour rights situation in Bangladesh and the country’s fate regarding generalised scheme of preferences under EBA in the EU market largely depends on the report of the committee.People involved in the process said that the government apprised the delegation of the proposed changes in Bangladesh Labour Act to eliminate the concerns of European Union while labour rights groups informed the team about the barriers to collective bargaining, freedom of association and protection of the right to organise.The EBA Technical Mission to Bangladesh on Labour rights includes Nikolaos Zaimis, adviser at European Commission, Directorate General for Trade, policy officer of DG trade Maja-Alexandra Dittel and Elina Laurinen, head of unit of the Directorate-General for Employment Lluis Prats and policy officer Benedikt Buenker and deputy head of unit of European External Action Service Isabelle Delattre would leave Bangladesh today.One of the high officials of the government said that the EU raised six key labour issues with Bangladesh including extending coverage of freedom of association and collective bargaining, legislative protection against any interference in trade union activities, facilitation of trade union registration, prevention of anti-union discrimination, elimination of forced labour and elimination of child labour.‘We have explained our position and presented detailed about the proposed changes in Bangladesh labour act. They wanted to know whether we have addressed the recommendations of International Labour Organisation regarding collective bargaining and anti-union discrimination,’ he said.One more government officials said that it was very difficult to guess whether the team was satisfied or not with the position of Bangladesh as the team members were highly diplomatic.Another government official said that the EU team discussed Bangladesh’s labour issues relating to their ‘Everything but Arms’ scheme saying that Bangladesh was the highest beneficiary of the scheme in the EU market and the country should take concrete and lasting measures to ensure the respect of labour to remain eligible for the EBA regime. During the visit, the EBA Technical Mission to Bangladesh on Labour rights held one more meeting with labour leaders.The team wanted to know the real situation of labour rights in Bangladesh and leaders of the labour rights group informed that only 15 per cent of workforce in the country had trade union coverage.Labour leaders also informed that the rejection rate of trade union registration application is still high, 20 per cent membership threshold for trade union was not acceptable and decent work was yet to be established in the labour sector.One of the labour leaders said that the team was not satisfied with the performance of Bangladesh regarding right to organise, collective bargaining, freedom of association and protection of the right to organise.The EU would like to see the changes in Bangladesh Labour Act and the Bangladesh Labour Rules in conformity with the provisions of the ILO convention 87 and 89, he said.EC team would assess the need for launching a formal investigation into the status of labour rights situation in Bangladesh to decide whether or not the country would be allowed to enjoy generalised scheme of preferences under EBA in the EU market. Following the international labour conference in May this year the ILO conference committee called upon the Bangladesh government to ensure that the Bangladesh Labour Act and the Bangladesh Labour Rules are brought into conformity with the provisions of the convention regarding freedom of association, paying particular attention to priorities identified by the social partners.It also recommended ensuring that the draft EPZ Labour Act allowed freedom of association for workers’ and employers’ organisations and was brought into conformity with the provisions of the convention regarding freedom of association.ILO committee also suggested investigating all alleged acts of anti-union discrimination, including those in the Ashulia area, ensuring the reinstatement of those illegally dismissed and imposing fines or criminal sanctions according to the law and that applications for union registration were acted upon expeditiously and were not denied unless they failed to meet clear and objective criteria set forth in the law.One of the sources said that the ILO would place a review on Bangladesh on its governing body meeting to be held in November and the EU would decide its next course of action regarding EBA scheme in Bangladesh based on the ILO report.
