Recommendations

To the Bangladesh Government

• Revise the labor law to ensure it is in line with international labor standards. The law and 2013 amendments fall short of International Labour Organization labor standards ratified by Bangladesh, including Convention No. 87 on freedom of association and Convention No. 98 on the right to organize and bargain collectively.
• Ensure that workers’ rights to form unions and collectively bargain are protected. Promptly address complaints lodged with the labor department and ensure that workers are able to express their concerns without intimidation by managers and supervisors. Instruct the police to properly investigate complaints of physical attacks and identify perpetrators (critical because managers often use hired thugs and then deny any role). Investigate all factory owners alleged to have engaged in anti-union activity, and hold accountable and penalize employers found to have violated workers’ rights.
• Carry out effective and impartial investigations into all workers’ allegations of mistreatment, including beatings, threats, and other abuses, and prosecute those responsible.
• Develop and implement a plan to increase the number of government labor, fire, and building inspectors, improve their training, establish clear procedures for independent and credible inspections, and expand the resources at their disposal to conduct effective inspections.
• Expand factory inspections and labor rights protections to the Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
• Investigate all credible allegations of corruption by labor inspectors and prosecute those responsible.
• Establish an effective complaint mechanism so that workers can raise violations of safety regulations and workers’ rights without fear of retaliation.
• Strengthen the labor department so that it has greater powers to penalize owners and unions for unfair labor practices, instead of just relying on the judiciary to address grievances. These should include fines and other sanctions to deter future violations.
• Investigate all cases in which managers or owners allegedly filed trumped up criminal complaints against workers and union organizers, and promptly drop all unwarranted charges.
• Take further steps to effectively investigate the murder of labor activist Aminul Islam.
• Investigate allegations that factory owners share a blacklist of workers involved in union activities and end any discrimination in hiring based on union involvement.
• Ratify ILO convention 121 on benefits to workers injured in workplace accidents.
• Amend regulations restricting foreign funding to non-governmental labor organizations.
• Implement the Supreme Court ruling to protect against sexual harassment in the workplace.

To the Ministry of Labour and Employment

• Review, in consultation with independent unions and the ILO, all union registration requirements and eliminate any that violate ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association. In the interim, accept and promptly grant pending applications for union licenses.
• Develop, in consultation with independent unions, a transparent system of union registrations that allows workers to track the status of each application online.
• Publicly report the status and final outcomes of union registration applications—including the time taken to process the applications and the basis for any denials—and provide information on collective bargaining agreements concluded between unions and employers.
• Periodically disclose the number of factories inspected, key labor rights violations, and enforcement action status.
• Allocate adequate budgets for labor inspectors and periodically disclose a statement of allocation and expenditure.
• Periodically disclose the names and number of garment factories that are registered with the ministry so that these may be cross-verified by labor rights groups and the Ministry of Labour for inspections.
• Periodically disclose any actions initiated by the ministry against non-compliant garment factories. Publicly disclose all suppliers and subcontractors on a regular (such as semi-annual) basis, indicate the level of production (for example, whether the unit is a small, medium, or large supplier) and disclose when the unit was most recently inspected by independent monitors.

To the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA)

• Publicly support the right of workers to form trade unions and work with unions and factory owners to ensure that workers’ right to freedom of association is respected.
• Encourage members to support the establishment of independent unions and ensure protection of both union members and leaders. Adopt and make public written policies prohibiting discriminatory action against workers, such as disciplining or dismissing workers based on pregnancy or union membership.
• Ensure that members strictly abide by the labor law.
• Work with BGMEA and BKMEA members and the government to ensure that anti-union behavior is eradicated.
• Encourage members to drop pending unwarranted criminal charges against labor activists and workers who have sought to organize unions.
• Collaborate with the International Labor Organization to educate factory owners in the benefits of having independent trade unions and improved labor relations.

To International Apparel Companies

• Effectively implement policies and practices to ensure that all factories in Bangladesh involved in the supply chain of apparel respect worker rights, in particular the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
• Institute regular factory inspections to ensure that factories comply with companies’ codes of conduct and the Bangladesh Labor Law.
• Audits and inspections undertaken by or on behalf of apparel companies should include an investigation of concerns about workers’ rights to freedom of association and protection against anti-union discrimination.
• Create a whistleblower protection system for workers and union representatives who alert an international apparel company to labor rights abuses in a factory manufacturing their products. The system should ensure that all workers and union representatives receive appropriate protection for a reasonable period, including legal representation to defend themselves against vexatious lawsuits or criminal complaints filed by factories; monthly wages (including the minimum wage, reasonable allowances, and overtime pay); and, where workers are dismissed from work soon after reporting the labor rights abuses, that they do not face obstacles to obtaining alternative employment at a nearby location.
• Publicly disclose all authorized production units on a regular basis including any subcontracts. Indicate the level of production (for example, whether the unit is a small, medium, or large supplier), and disclose when the unit was most recently inspected by independent monitors.
• Ensure that unauthorized subcontractor factories brought to brand attention are formally reported to the Ministry of Labor and Employment for monitoring and enforcement action.
• Join the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord, a legally binding agreement that seeks to involve factory workers in ensuring the safety of factories.
• Ensure that pricing and sourcing contracts adequately reflect and incorporate the cost of labor, health, and safety compliance in consultation with labor rights lawyers and unions. This should include the cost of the minimum wage, overtime payments, and all legal benefits.
• Ensure that working conditions fully respect human rights and dignity, including provision for appropriate rest, restroom access and breaks, and drinking water breaks. Productivity targets should not be set at such a level as to encourage or in any way facilitate violations or undermining of such conditions.
• Actively encourage women’s participation in union leadership and encourage training, awareness, and factory-level complaints mechanisms against sexual harassment at the workplace.
• Companies who had any commercial relationship with factories involved in either Rana Plaza or Tazreen Fashions should support the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund and a similar fund organized by the ILO for the victims of the Tazreen Fashions fire.

To the US, EU, UK, Canada, Japan, and Other Countries whose International Companies Source from Bangladesh

• Introduce legal measures to require companies domiciled in the country who purchase apparel from outside the country to periodically disclose and update their global suppliers and subcontractors together with an indication of the volume that is sourced from each supplier and subcontractor and the status of inspection by an independent monitor on the date of disclosure. Advocate for comparable legal measures in other countries.
• Provide funds and technical guidance to strengthen the capacity, transparency, and accountability of the Bangladesh Ministry of Labour.

To the ILO

• Ensure the Bangladesh government brings its labor laws into compliance with all ILO Conventions ratified by Bangladesh, and the core labor standards outlined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work.
• Provide technical assistance, as needed, to ensure that labor inspections by the Ministry of Labor are comprehensive and transparent, and result in effective regulatory enforcement actions in accordance with the law.
• Press international labor and international employer groups to support full compensation for the workers or families of workers killed or injured in the Rana Plaza building collapse and the Tazreen Fashions factory fire.