ABSTRACT

Labor rights are a very broad issue; however, it can be boiled down to the protection and respect of human life in the workplace and the right to work itself. Some components of labor rights are the rights to job safety, collective bargaining, and equal pay for equal work. Labor rights vary by country; however the International Labor Organization (ILO)1 provides universal standards and guidelines. The ILO, a part of the UN2, aims to provide guidance and standards for labor practices around the world. Most of the worker who works in the different industries in Bangladesh is deprived of their basic right. Labor law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. Labor law arose due to the demands for workers for better conditions, the right to organize, and the simultaneous demands of employers to restrict the powers of workers' many organizations and to keep labor costs low.

LABOR AND LAWS

In classical economics, Labor is one of the three factors of production, along with capital and land. Labor can also be used to describe work performed, including any valuable service rendered by a human agent in the production of wealth, other than accumulating and providing capital. Labor is performed for the sake of its product or, in modern economic life, for the sake of a share of the aggregate product of the community's industry.

Reiner Tosstorff, "The International Trade-Union Movement and the Founding of the International Labour Organization," International Review of Social History 2005 50(3): 399433 2 The United Nations Organization (UNO) or simply the United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.

A labor is defined under the law of Bangladesh in Section 2(65) of the Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006. Labor means any person, including a trainee/probationer, whether the terms and conditions of his/her employment are expressly written or not, who is employed directly or through a contractor/agency, for any skilled, unskilled, physical, technical, business development or clerical job administrative or managerial duties. in any establishment or industry, but does not include any person responsible primarily for

Labor law deals with the rights and obligations of workers, union members and employers in the workplace. Generally, labor law covers3.
Industrial relations certification of unions, labor-management

relations, collective bargaining and unfair labor practices Workplace health and safety Employment standards, including general holidays, annual vacations, working hours, unjust dismissals, minimum wage, layoff procedures and severance pay

Politicization of labor and industrial sectors, corruption of the trade union leaders and the role of CBA are responsible in this connection. So, the main purpose of this study is to explore the anomalies of labor laws in implementing labor rights as well as to suggest how to amend the existing laws or to enact new laws, in favour of workers. Bangladesh is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and has an obligation to uphold its conventions, such as the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

See LO, Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (Forced Labor Convention, 1930), ILO Conference, 75th Session, Geneva, 2004; available from [Link]

According to the Bangladesh labor code, 2006 Sec-108(1), When a worker works in an establishment for more than the prescribed hours in any day or in any week under this code, he shall, in respect of overtime work, be entitled to allowance at the rate of twice of the average of his basic wages, dearness allowance and adhoc or interim wages, if any

BACKGROUND
From the very beginning of civilization the rights of laborers have been ignored and laborers have had a lack of awareness of their own rights. Laborers are deprived of all kind of rights, all over the world. This deprivation puts the labor class in an extreme position, which requires them to rein store their rights. To this they have begun to organize themselves. A Trade union is the outcome of such demands. Every one has the right to form and to join a trade union for the protection of their interests. The labor laws have given birth to some fundamental industrial rights to laborers in the field of production, and it has also provided protection for those rights.4 Labor rights in Bangladesh are not justifiable under the existing labor laws and lack of proper execution system of those existing laws is the main course for not ensuring labor rights. In this context I try to identify the failure to achieve labor rights and clearly identified the following host factors, including workers' disunity, ideological divide between various trade unions, lack of organizational structure, control of pro-reform national political parties over their respective trade unions, the diminishing influence of leftist trade unions in labor parties and the lack of an alternative leftist political agenda in Bangladesh politics. At the observation of Rajshahi textile mills and other textile mill in Dhaka especially govt. textile mills do not paid pay twice of their overtime works. The salaries of the worker are paid by little amount. Example: 60-100 bdt in
4

UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties, Concluding Observations: Bangladesh, CRC/C/15/Add.221, Geneva, October 27, 2003, 15;available from_[Link] 256df3005a49f4/$FI LE/[Link]. See also U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports- 2006: Bangladesh," Sections 5 and 6c.

Bangladeshi taka are paid to the worker for daily per base work. Its a so little amount to support his/her family. Here, most of the workers are female. According to the Bangladesh Labor Code, 2006, Sec-45, 46, 47, 48, 49, we clearly know that what the benefits of women who works in any organization/institution. But in those mills women can not enjoy full payment & other facility that said at labor law. According to the Bangladesh Labor Code 2006, Sec-263, provident fund is necessary for each labor. But, here, no provident funds are found for workers/labors 5 . According to the Bangladesh Labor Code, 2006 Sec-92(1), Where more than one hundred workers are ordinarily employed, an adequate canteen shall be provided for the use of the workers Now, these types of canteen are dreamy for workers. They carry food from their home and eat it in their work place. The environments of their family place are so noisome. They live in dirty place for their lower income. Their children are also deprived of basic education. They are considering as a lower class people in the town or village.

CURRENT SCENARIO
The People's Republic of Bangladesh has many laws governing the relationship between workers and employers, including the 1965 Employment of Labor Act and the 1969 Industrial Relations Ordinance. Specific laws practically apply to several industries, but enforcement is lax or virtually nonexistent. Although the Bangladesh Labor Law (amendment) Bill, 2010 was passed in the Jatiya Sangsad on 28 june but the fact is that weather the law will be implemented properly or not. The main objective of the bill is to remove inconsistency from the retirement age of laborers working in the corporations under different ministries. The Public Corporations (Management Co-ordination) Ordinance 1986 stipulated the retirement age
5

Government of Bangladesh, The Factories Act, No. 4, (1965), Sections 2, 25, 66, 70, 87, 95; available from [Link] See also Government of Bangladesh, The Factories Rules, (1979), Sections 45, 83; available from [Link]

of laborers at 60 years while the Bangladesh Labor Law, 2006 fixed at 57 years.6 Bangladesh's readymade garment (RMG) workers, who are poorly paid, allege that the owners of the factories and employers exploit them by compelling work more than eight hours a day and denying paying a realistic wage to afford their dire necessities. The deprived workers have protested on the streets and got arrested in fabricated cases as well as detained for longer periods across the country on several occasions in the past. Many of the workers have been killed by the law-enforcement agencies as well as by the hired gunmen of the employers7, as it has been alleged by the victims of those incidents. The failure of the Government to ensure a realistic wage for the workers of RMG sector has encouraged the workers to join in violent demonstration to realize their right to adequate wage.

MAJOR ISSUES:
A lack of occupational health and safety standards, training or personal protection equipment provided.

Limited or no access to treatment, emergency services and compensation when a worker is injured or killed on the job. Less than minimum wages. Use of child labor. Extensive working hours with no right to overtime, sick or annual leave. Lack of job security: no work no pay. No right to join or form a trade union

Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Country Team in Bangladesh, Millennium Development Goals: Bangladesh Progress Report, Dhaka, February 2005, Preface, 53; available from [Link] 7 See Bazlul Khondhker, Abdur Razzaque, and Nazneen Ahmed. Exports, Employment and Working Conditions: Emerging Issues in the Post MFARMG Industry. March 2007. Pg.124

In the majority of the shipyards, workers are being deprived of their rights. They work under risky conditions but have no access to safety equipment, job security or a living wage.

DISCRIMINATION AND EQUAL REMUNERATION:

Laws specifically prohibit certain forms of discrimination against women and provide for special procedures for persons accused of violence against women and children; however, enforcement of these laws is weak. Women remain in a subordinate position in society, and the government does not act effectively to protect their basic right8s. Religious minorities, such as Hindis, are disadvantaged in such areas as access to government jobs. There is also a perception that police are often slow to assist members of religious minorities who have been victims of crime.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND THE RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:

Despite the fact that Bangladesh has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and that the constitution and national law provide for the right to join unions, these rights are not respected in practice. Bangladesh still requires a quorum of support of 30 per cent of workers to create a trade union, an obligation that has been systematically denounced by the ILO. The recommendations of this international body to amend the law have been ignored. Some professions are still prevented from joining unions, such as managerial and administrative employees and teachers. There are many cases of serious intimidation against trade unionists and the laws on hours of work, health and safety and overtime are enforced very poorly.

Government of Bangladesh, Unlocking the Potential: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper), Dhaka, October 16, 2005, 323; available from [Link]

CHILD LABOR:
Primary education is free and compulsory, but the implementation of compulsory education falls short in part because parents keep children out of school, preferring instead to have them working for money or helping with household chores. Under the law, children between ages 6 and 10 must attend school up to the fifth grade or the age of 10 years. However, there is no effective mechanism to enforce this provision. Bangladesh has not ratified ILO Convention 138 on the minimum age for employment. Even though primary education is free and compulsory, there are no mechanisms to achieve the implementation of comprehensive education coverage. Children work at a very young age suffering serious injuries and ultimately death in workplaces.9

FORCED LABOR:
Bangladesh has ratified ILO Conventions 29 and 105 and its national law bans forced labor. However, the enforcement of these laws is very weak. Consequently, while forced labor has apparently disappeared in large scale companies, it has not done so in other parts of the country. The national law equally prohibits trafficking. Nevertheless, there is extensive practice of this among women and children, primarily to neighboring and Arabic countries10.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, National Child Labour Survey 2002-03, 191. See also National Labor Committee, Child Labor is Back: Children Are Again Sewing Clothing for Major U.S. Companies, New York,October 2006; 10 UNFPA, UNFPA Global Population Policy Update, [online] March 16, 2004 [cited October 13, 2006]; available from [Link]

ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM
Department of Inspection has regional and zonal offices for enforcement of labor laws. Its functions include Inspection of factories, shops, commercial establishments, tea plantations, ports/docks, railways, inland water transport and road transport under labor laws for enforcement of the provisions relating to safety, health, hours of work, rest etc.11 Prosecution against the violation of labor laws in different courts etc.

There are seven labor courts in Bangladesh. They are established under Industrial Relations Ordinance of 1965 for resolving mainly labor disputes. But they have jurisdiction to adjudicate violation of all labor laws (Section 35, IRO). There is one Labor Appellate Tribunal12. This usually disposes off disputes settled in labor courts but appealed for further adjudication.

11

U.S. Embassy- Dhaka, reporting, December 21, 2006. See also U.S. Embassy- Dhaka, reporting, November 22, 2005. See also U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports- 2006: Bangladesh," Section 6d. 12 Stephen F. Befort and John W. Budd, Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives: Bringing Workplace Law and Public Policy Into Focus (2009) Stanford University Press

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Owner of the business and the concern body should adopt specific measures, coupled with effective and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions, against acts of interference in trade union activities; 2. The government of Bangladesh should amend its national law to provide all workers with the right to join trade unions and engage in collective bargaining. The basic right of freedom of association must be extended to all civil service and security force employees, teachers & managerial and administrative employees. 3. Ensure that these demands are reflected in a new Labor Code to be produced as soon as possible. 4. Must amend its law and take adequate measures to prevent the common practice of discrimination by many employers against trade union members, officers or leaders. 5. Establish and implement effective penalties against violence by employers and crack down on collusion by local authorities and police with employers. Similarly, the Labor Court should be given adequate resources to handle its case load expeditiously and its decisions must be scrutinized to identify and eliminate corrupt interventions by employers13. 6. The respective authority must bring the countrys export processing zones within the scope of the Employment of Labor (Standing Orders) Act, the Industrial Relations Ordinance, and the Factories Act in order to end restrictions on the basic right of freedom of association and the formation of unions. The government must equally take effective measures to ensure the application of the above mentioned legal instruments to all the EPZs. 7. The government of Bangladesh must ratify ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for employment.

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Lederman, D., Olarreaga, M. and Payton, L. ((2006) Export Promotion Agencies: What Works and What Doesn't. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper.

8. Must carry out regular factory inspections that apply to all the economic actors in the country, including in small-scale activities, with particular priority in order to eliminate child labor. 9. The government of Bangladesh must end forced labor through enforcement of the Factories Act and Shops and Establishments Act. 10. The WTO should draw to the attention of the authorities of Bangladesh the commitments they undertook to observe core labor standards at the Singapore and Doha Ministerial Conferences. The WTO should request the ILO to intensify its work with the government of Bangladesh in these areas and provide a report to the WTO General Council on the occasion of the next trade policy review14.

CONCLUSION
That is why labor rights were ignored at the presence of law and conventions. The chief inspector and inspectors of labor need to comply with the provisions of existing labor laws in Bangladesh so that labor rights can be wholly ensured in Bangladesh. In this country, the existing laws regarding laborers are primitive in nature. Lack of a proper execution system of the laws is the main cause in the ignorance of labor rights. Though they are existing in the provision of trade unions and collective bargaining agents (CBA) to preserve the workers interests, the trade unions and CBA do not perform their respective duties properly. Bangladesh has a long way to go to live up to its commitments, in both national policies and meeting international obligations. It is only possible when the productivity of labor will be raised up significantly. To do so, Bangladesh need to implement the labor laws properly so that the labor rights can be protected from the discrimination and injustice.

[Total words: 2133]

14

Steinberg, Richard H. "In the Shadow of Law or Power? Consensus-based Bargaining and Outcomes in the GATT/WTO." International Organization. Spring 2002. pp. 339-374.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, National Child Labor Survey 200203, 191. See also National Labor Committee, Child Labor is Back: Children Are Again Sewing Clothing for Major U.S. Companies, New York, October 2006; available from [Link] st_Rich/NLC_Child_Labor [Link]. 2. ILO Committee of Experts, Direct Request, Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, 1999 (No. 182), Bangladesh (ratification: 2001), 3. ODHIKAR, Yearly Report on Human Rights Situation in Bangladesh (Dhaka: 2002). 4. Selections from the Letters, Speeches, and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, by Abraham Lincoln, edited by Ida Minerva Tarbell, Ginn, 1911 / 2008, pg 77 5. Fink, Leon. Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and America Politics. United States of America: the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 1983. 6. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Archived from the original on 2006-09-29. [Link] english/countries/ratification/[Link]. Retrieved 2006-10-05. 7. Simon Honeyball, Honeyball and Bowers' Textbook on Employment Law (2008) Oxford University Press 8. US Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2002 (Washington: 2002) and USAID, Bangladesh Anti - Trafficking 13 March 2003. 9. ILO, Reports of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, 2006 and previous editions.

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10. "Violence May Be Rising Against Bangladesh Women," Gulf News, United Arab Emirates, 23 March 2002. 11. Ain o Sailash Kendra (2010), ASK Bulletin, June 2010: [Link] as on 6 October 2010 12. "Constitution of Bangladesh: Part II: Fundamental Principles of State Policy"; Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 13. [Link] 14. [Link] 15. [Link] 16. [Link]

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