ILO chief bemoans Bangladesh factory worker-owner relations

Guy Ryder, the visiting ILO Director-General, has said relations between workers and factory owners in Bangladesh left much to be desired.

“My impression here is there is not the level of confidence and trust between employers and workers which is what is needed both to ensure good working conditions, but also to ensure the factory are productive and successful,” Ryder said at a Dhaka press briefing on Tuesday.

"Productive industrial relations are one of the keys to successful development," he added.

He called for “social dialogue” in industries, apart from making the work place safe, to encourage workers and employers to work together in “a more cooperative relationship”.

Ryder is the first chief of the UN labour agency to visit Bangladesh in decades.

It comes amid ongoing efforts to make factories safe and ensure workers’ rights following the Rana Plaza building collapse.

During his Dec 10-13 stay, he met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and also discussed a variety of work-related issues with government ministers, workers’ and owners’ organisations as well as development partners.

He took part in the Ninth Global Forum for Migration and Development and the Dhaka Summit on Skills, Employability, and Decent Work 2016, held as part of the ILO’s Future of Work initiative.

He also attended the launch of a new ILO project funded by Sweden and Denmark, which aims to build social dialogue and harmonious industrial relations in the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry.

A new skills programme funded by the European Union was also launched in his presence. The programme will continue reforms in the skills development sector.

A Memorandum of Intent between the government of Bangladesh, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the ILO was signed to continue their joint efforts to improve working conditions in the RMG sector.

He also visited two RMG factories on the outskirts of Dhaka, where he saw some of the works undertaken after the Rana Plaza collapse to improve factory safety and talked with members of management, unions, workers and Safety Committees.

“I think we have come a long way. Still there is a long road to travel together,” he said, replying to questions at the briefing, with state minister for labour and employment Mojibur Rahman Chunnu at his side.

“I would say that since 2O13 a great deal of work had been done to undertake structural assessment and safety of the building and take remedial measures. Good progress has been made, but the job is not finished,” he said.

He also echoed the state minister’s comment that “we must not lose momentum…we must continue work which is underway”. Ryder said: "That is the ambition the ILO and the government share.”

He acknowledged that the labour act had been amended, but said the ILO would like to see some further modifications in the law. He said the ILO also wanted to see full labour rights extended even in the EPZs.

“If this country wants to sustain a successful and growing RMG sector, it must make safety a priority and ensure that industrial practices are in conformity with international labour standards.

“It has an interest in ensuring positive industrial relations practices, including respect of trade union rights and activities.

“All those things, I think, are very important. I would reiterate the importance of the skills agenda as well,” he said, adding that both Bangladesh and the ILO had a joint interest in ensuring good management of migration.

The state minister said Bangladesh was “very respectful” to ILO conventions and the government was “very open” to allowing trade unions in factories.

He said since the Rana Plaza collapse, the government had given approval to 4OO trade unions.

“We are granting approval to all unions that can fulfill the criteria,” he said, explaining that some trade unions could not be registered as they had failed to meet the criteria relating to managing support and signatures of 3O percent of workers of a factory.