Expressing concern over the limited progress on the National Action Plan (NAP) on ensuring labour rights, the European Commission (EC) has requested Bangladesh to implement its pledges within the stipulated timeframe to enjoy the GSP-plus trade concession in the EU market.
“Some progress in the implementation of the NAP has been made … a significant increase in efforts is still needed,” it said in a recent letter, expressing concern over the lack of progress on key areas.
In fiscal year 2022-23, Bangladesh fetched from the EU market, the country’s largest export destination, US$ 25.23 billion, which was 45.42 per cent of the country’s total export earnings.
The EC communicated its concerns with the Bangladesh ministries of foreign affairs, commerce and labour, urging the country to put in place necessary measures to ensure full implementation of such actions.
The EC also cited that some actions will be due in the coming months and inquired about how progress can be made in areas where the deadlines have already passed.
To review the full status of the progress made so far, a high-level EC monitoring mission on Everything but Arms (EBA) and NAP is expected to visit Bangladesh on November 12-16, officials said.
According to the letter, Bangladesh has to comply with the human and labour rights issues as per the international standard, including implementation of the ongoing NAP, within the stipulated time frame to qualify for the GSP plus trade concession.
It adds that the full implementation of the NAP will be the key criteria in the assessment of a possible GSP plus application by Bangladesh from 2024.
The NAP covers broadly nine issues, including framing Bangladesh labour law in compliance with the ILO standards on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and eliminating child labour in all its forms by 2025.
Other issues include combating violence against workers, harassment, unfair labour practices, increasing the success rate of application for trade union registration (paper and online) to a minimum of 90 per cent and avoiding discretionary refusal of trade union registrations, according to a high official at the labour ministry.
The EC letter reads: “Recent proposed EU legislative initiatives, namely a proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence and a proposal to prohibit products made with forced labour on the EU market, also focus on international labour standards and decent work.”
In the event that any new accidents would occur, this could indicate a sub-optimal level of factory safety and, as a result, have a massive negative impact on consumer trust and supply chains in Europe, it adds.
The EC expected that a substantive, triangle and effective progress will be made on investigation of alleged cases of police violence and harassment against workers, ensuring a sufficient number of labour inspectors and moving swiftly to address child labour by the time of the upcoming monitoring mission to be held in Dhaka.
The upcoming mission would jointly discuss the next steps and further actions with regard to the NAP, EBA and GSP issues.
The commission has requested an update about the latest changes to the labour law recently agreed at the Cabinet level of Bangladesh.
The EC acknowledged that the steps adopted by Bangladesh were in the right direction, but said the proposed changes as a whole seem to fall markedly short of the reform foreseen in the NAP.
