The government has decided to cut the requisite rate of workers' representation in trade union registration, bringing it down by 5.0 and 10 per cent depending on the size of workforce.
The decision came after the International Labour Organization expressed its reservation about the government's previous proposals.
According to the existing labour law, some 30 per cent of an enterprise's minimum members are required to get a trade union registered while labour leaders and western stakeholders demanded reducing the requirement to 10 per cent, they said.
"We've decided to amend the provision of the threshold required for union registration to two slabs--25 per cent for factories having workers up to 5,000 and 20 per cent for units with more than 5,000 workers," state minister for labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu told the FE Monday.
Earlier in November, the government had sent the drafts of the amended labour law and export-processing-zones law to the ILO according to the UN agency's recommendations. The actions reflected the commitment Bangladesh made at the International Labour Conference (ILC) held in June in Geneva.
In the draft, the government proposed reducing the threshold to four slabs, a labour ministry official said.
The labour ministry proposed that the requirement would remain 30 per cent for establishments having workers fewer than 2,000.
But the requirement would be 27 per cent for enterprises with workers between 2,001 to 5,000; 24 per cent for firms with workers in the range of 5,001 to 7,500 and 20 per cent for 7,501 workers or more for the trade union registration, he noted.
"The committee regrets that the proposed amendments do not respond to its longstanding concerns and notes with concern that the minor reduction in the minimum membership requirements proposed by the government is not likely to have an impact on a large number of enterprises and thus would not, in any meaningful manner, contribute to the free establishment of workers' organisations," an expert committee of the ILO said in its latest report.
The committee of experts has recently submitted the report to the governing body of the ILO.
The expert committee urged the government to review sections 179(2) and 179(5) of the labour law without any delay in consultation with social partners, with a view to reducing the minimum membership requirement.
"A trade union of workers shall not be entitled to registration under this chapter, unless it has a minimum membership of 30 per cent of the total number of workers employed in the establishment in which it is formed," sections 179(2) of Bangladesh Labour Act stipulates.
According to the Section 179(5), no registration shall be provided to more than three trade unions at any time in an establishment or group of establishments.
The ILO committee requested the government to provide information on the approximate number of enterprises falling within each of the enterprise categories for the purpose of establishing adequate minimum membership requirement and to indicate the sectors in which they operate.
The committee's other recommendations included bringing the labour and EPZ laws and rules into conformity with the provisions of the convention regarding freedom of the association.
When asked, the minister said that a committee is scrutinising and taking necessary measures regarding other ILO's recommendations.
The European Commi-ssion also pressed the government for addressing the ILO recommendations within the set timeframe to avoid temporary withdrawal of its Generalised System of Preference (GSP) for Bangladesh.
