Nineteen garment factories, which were accused of preventing trade unionism, have assured that they would allow the practice as per laws, said Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.
The assurance came in a hearing with the accused factories yesterday, he said.
The commerce ministry organised the hearing after the allegations against the factories that they were barring trade unionism and harassing the workers who intended to form unions.
The hearing was held at the commerce ministry office at Secretariat in the city.
The factories have been asked to follow the directives of the commerce ministry in resolving the trade union issue.
Factories said they would do accordingly and make progress to correct their fault.
“The owners have promised us to ensure workers’ right of association,” said Tofail Ahmed.
He urged the factory owners to “sympathetically deal with workers’ issue and not to fire on simple grounds.”
The government will need to submit progress report on implementation of garment workers’ rights to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) by April 15 under the Action Plan.
The Bangladesh Action Plan includes 16 conditions to be full-filled to get generalised system of preferences (GSP) back.
According to the commerce minister, Bangladesh has already met 13 conditions and the remaining ones will be addressed within due time.
Appointing 200 fire inspectors, preparing a publicly accessible data-base of workers and allowing trade unions at the RMG factories located in export processing zone (EPZ) areas are the three conditions still unmet.
Tofail Ahmed said necessary steps had been taken to complete the appointment of fire inspectors
The US has further asked Bangladesh authorities to clarify the allegations of abuse of workers’ rights against some factories.
After Rana Plaza building collapse in April, the Obama administration suspended Bangladesh’s trade benefits under GSP due to “insufficient progress” by the government in affording workers internationally recognised workers’ rights and improving safety standards.
Bangladesh garment sector employ around 44 lakh workers, 80% of whom are females.
