Bangladesh eases trade union laws after factory building collapse

Government's concession to campaigners comes day after plans announced to raise minimum wage for garment workers

guardian.co.uk, Jason Burke in Delhi and agencies, Monday 13 May 2013

Link to video: Dhaka May Day protests demand justice for factory collapse fatalities

Bangladesh's government agreed on Monday to allow the country's 4 million garment workers to form trade unions without prior permission from factory owners, a major concession to campaigners lobbying for widespread reforms to the industry following a building collapse last month that killed more than 1,100 people.

The cabinet decision came a day after the government announced a plan to raise the minimum wage for garment workers, who are paid some of the lowest wages in the world to sew clothing bound for global retailers.

Those working at the eight-storey Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories when it collapsed on 24 April, were paid as little as £25 ($38) per month.

Rescuers on Monday continued to search for survivors in the ruins after a seamstress was discovered alive under the rubble on Friday. The woman is recovering in hospital.

The toll from the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 stands at 1,127. No bodies were found at the site, in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, on Monday indicating that all may have been retrieved, a spokesman at the army control room co-ordinating the salvage operation said.

The tragedy has prompted widespread criticism of international firms working with local garment producers in one of Asia's poorest countries.

Several western firms, including UK high street retailer Primark, have said they were supplied by factories in the complex. The building had been illegally constructed, developed massive cracks in the days before its collapse and workers were forced to continue work despite safety fears. The building's owner has been arrested.

Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, a government spokesman, said ministers had agreed to amend the law to lift legal restrictions on forming trade unions in most industries. The old law required workers to obtain permission before they could unionise.

"No such permission from owners is now needed," Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. "The government is doing it for the welfare of the workers."

Local and international trade unions have long argued for such changes.

On Monday, writing in the Guardian in his first major intervention since the tragedy, Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate and internationally respected social activist, called for both a minimum wage and a 50 cent (33p) surcharge on garments made in Bangladesh, which would finance a social welfare fund assuring safety at work, healthcare and pensions for workers.

On Sunday, the government set up a new minimum wage board that will issue recommendations for pay rises within three months, textiles minister Abdul Latif Siddiky said.

The board will include representatives of factory owners, workers and the government, he added.

In the Guardian, Yunus, founder of the microfinance pioneer Grameen Bank, said the garment industry had brought many benefits to Bangladesh, but should be reformed.

Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothes in the world, after China and Italy. The industry has allowed millions of women from poor rural backgrounds to earn a living. However, minimum wages for garment workers were last raised by 80% to 3,000 takas ($38/£25) a month in 2010 following protests by workers.

Since 2005, at least 1,800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.

In November, 112 workers were killed in a garment factory in Dhaka. The factory lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-storey building were legally built.

Endemic corruption means owners and constructors can routinely ignore health and safety regulations.

The owner of the Rana Plaza and eight other people, including garment factory owners, have been detained. Authorities say the building owner added floors to the structure illegally and allowed the factories to install heavy equipment such as generators that the building was not designed to support.

Bangladeshi Army personnel use heavy equipment to clear debris

 after a building collapse near Dhaka, on May 13, 2013 (AFP,

Munir Uz Zaman)

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