Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) and Solidarity Center - Bangladesh yesterday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to resolve the disputes between the employers and the workers in an alternative dispute resolution process.
BFFEA President Md Amin Ullah, BSFF Chairman Syed Mahmudul Haq and SCB field Programme Specialist Jennifer Kuhlman signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations to resolve disputes between employers and workers of shrimp and fish processing industry.
Under the agreement titled “Rules of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanism”, the employers and the workers will be able to resolve their disputes in number of steps through bi-partite negotiation, mediation and arbitration, said a statement of the BSFF issued yesterday.
The workers and the employers will be able to resolve the disputes in a comparatively shorter period avoiding the lengthy process of formal legal system through courts, it added.
“Both the workers and the employers will use this procedure in good faith, which will help to sustain a good working condition in shrimp and fish processing industry,” said the Country Program director of Solidarity Center Alonzo Suson.
The Memorandum of Agreement was funded by USAID through Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL) and undertaken by the trio in
association with Department of Fisheries (DoF).
Before the development of this process, 14 pending cases of the Labor Court in Khulna had been resolved through the negotiation between the respective workers and employers.
Earlier on March 24, 2013 BFFEA, BSFF and Solidarity Center signed a tripartite Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to work together to promote Bangladesh Labor Law and ILO Core Labor Standards in the Shrimp and Fish Processing Industry in Bangladesh and the Rules of ADR Mechanism was developed in the pretext of that MoA.
