European Commission Praises Bangladesh For Progress In Worker Safety, Labour Standards

László Andor, commissioner of European Commission came up with the resounding praise for the country at a follow up meeting held on Monday to review progress of the ongoing Sustainability Compact programme that Bangladesh signed with the European Union in July last year. 

“There has been much progress: labour law has been amended to strengthen freedom of association, collective bargaining and occupational health and safety; new trade unions have been created; more labour, fire and building safety inspections have been carried out,” said László Andor.

Terming these initiatives as “encouraging steps”, Andor also reaffirmed to support the country in its effort to ensure labor rights in the country.

“The Commission remains fully committed to pursuing its intense cooperation with Compact partners to achieve further tangible improvements. I am convinced that, working together, we can achieve further progress by then,” he added.

So far, the government on July 15, 2013 amended the labour law to allow full freedom of association at the factories. Subsequently, more than 208 trade unions signed up.

The labour ministry has already published a publicly accessible database of the garment factories.
The Public Service Commission this week has already recommended the labour ministry for recruiting additional 195 factory inspectors, another major requirement for regaining GSP.

With the recruitment of 195 factory inspectors, the total number of such personnel will be nearly 300, as the ministry has also appointed some inspectors in phases earlier.