Debate: Labour rights in Bangladesh
Date: THURSDAY, 8 JULY 2021
Speaker: Mairead McGuinness
Language: EN

Bangladesh benefits from the most favourable Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement under our generalised scheme of preferences, with free access to the European Union for all its products except arms and ammunition. Bangladesh has seen significant economic growth in recent years, leading to its scheduled graduation into a developing country in 2026. EBA has greatly contributed to this success.  The preferential trade arrangements directly contribute to economic growth, social development and job creation, and it has created around four million jobs in Bangladeshi textiles and garment sectors, mostly for women. But this unilateral tariff preferences of the European Union also requires more attention to labour standards and human rights. In exchange for the trade benefits, Bangladesh must uphold the principles laid down in the core international conventions on fundamental human rights and labour rights.  The Commission services and the European External Action Service have intensified dialogue with Bangladeshi authorities to press for concrete actions on the serious shortcomings in respecting fundamental labour rights. The COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on the economy have not made this enhanced engagement with Bangladesh any easier, but we continue to demand full compliance with the requirements of the Everything But Arms agreement.  I am glad and I can share with you, honourable Members, the first positive results of our enhanced engagement. On 1 July the Government of Bangladesh submitted its national action plan on the labour sector for the next five years. The national action plan aims to bring the Bangladesh Labour Act and Export Processing Zone Labour Law into compliance with requests of the International Labour Organization’s supervisory mechanism.  It contains commitments on long-standing issues, including on alignment of the Bangladesh Labour Act and implementing legislation with ILO conventions by September of next year and March 2023 respectively. Alignment of the legislation on export processing zone law with ILO conventions by June 2025.  While the Government of Bangladesh presented a detailed timeline, the target date – June 2025 – for the adoption of the amended law, is not as ambitious as the Commission had expected. We will continue engaging with the Bangladesh authorities to discuss and determine which steps could be taken faster to bring the overall timeline forward to ensure, as soon as possible, that all workers in Bangladesh can exercise their fundamental rights to freely associate and form trade unions. Eliminating child labour by 2025 and hazardous forms of child labour by this year, by 2021. This will be done through updating the list of hazardous jobs: strengthening labour inspection and fines; child labour survey; capacity-building and training, as well as cooperation with social partners and civil society.  The Government of Bangladesh will also continue to implement the actions regarding school participation and quality of education under its education sector plan. Combating violence against workers, harassment, blacklisting and anti-union discrimination through preventive measures, investigation and dissuasive penalties. Increasing the success rate of applications for trade union registration. Setting up an efficient system to follow up on cases of workers’ complaints. Strengthening labour inspection by filling in vacant positions and creating new posts by the end of next year and 2023, respectively. Remediation of faulty factories, including the possibility of closure notices for factories where remediation is not possible as of mid-next year. And ratifying ILO Convention No 138 on minimum age and Protocol of 2014 to ILO Convention No 29 on forced labour by December of this year.  The EU is not alone in its efforts to improve labour rights in Bangladesh. We have not only closely involved the International Labour Organization in the process of developing the national action plan on labour sector, but the ILO itself has set up a similar but separate process of engagement with Bangladesh.  Let me finish by underlining that the EU-Bangladesh process of developing and implementing the national action plan is the most promising step in many years of efforts on Bangladesh aligning its labour law and practice with international labour standards. I am fully aware that the most important part, the implementation of the reforms in accordance with the national plan, is still ahead of us, and this will require our continued close engagement with both Bangladeshi authorities and the ILO. Thank you, honourable Members, and I look forward to the debate.