Labour Minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu laid stress on building cooperation and trust between employers and workers at the country’s ready made garment industry.
“To ensure sustainability and growth in the country’s RMG sector, a congenial working environment at the factory level is a must, and which can be achieved through workplace cooperation between employers and employees,” he said.
The minister was addressing a workshop on “Workplace co-operation in RMG Sector: Bringing Employers and Workers Together” in the city yesterday.
ILO country director in Bangladesh Srinivas B Reddy, US Ambassador Dan W Mozena and BGMEA President Atiqul Islam also spoke on the occasion.
The government fulfilled all the conditions of Action Plan set by the US government to restore Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), Mujibul Haque Chunnu said.
“We have fulfilled all the conditions to get back GSP as PSC today (Thursday) recommended appointing more 189 factory inspectors.” Promoting Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in Bangladesh (FPRW) project of the International Labour Organization (ILO) funded by the US Department of Labor organised the event.
The project is aimed at addressing specific challenges faced by workers’ and employers’ organisations by building local capacity in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining and to help government of Bangladesh in achieving full-fledged compliance with international labour standards.
“In Bangladesh, the workers and trade union leaders do not know about the responsibility and duties and how to negotiate, while the factory owners also do not know about workers rights workers,” Mujibul said.
He urged the trade union leaders and owners to deal with the matter effectively. Mujibul urged the mid-level mangers to handle the workers with patience and softly considering their hard work.
Srinivas B Reddy said ensuring workplace cooperation is the responsibility of both workers and employers and is especially important in view of the dramatic increase in new trade unions over the last 18 months.
