The third webinar of the Academy of Law and Policy (ALAP) has discussed the rights of workers and employers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
ALAP’s Legal Webinar Series was launched earlier this month and the third webinar was streamed live from its Facebook page at 7:30pm on Wednesday, a press release said on Thursday.
The discussants were Justice Mirza Hussain Haider, judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and Asif Ibrahim, chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange and director of BGMEA.
The webinar was moderated by Barrister Reshad Imam, advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh and Partner, Akhtar Imam & Associates.
Justice Mirza explained the various provisions of the Labour Act which are relevant during this pandemic.
He stated that “law is a codification of our social practice” and that “there is no protection or safeguards provided by the Labour Act for informal workers like farmers and carpenters and hawkers” and that “there is a need for codification of the rights of informal workers”.
He also stated that Section 324 of the Labour Act gives inherent power to the government to pass necessary directions with regard to certain important provisions of the Labour Act including the power to exempt any worker or employer from complying with certain provisions of the Act. He also stated that “amendments should be made according to the need of time.”
Striking the right balance
Asif Ibrahim stated that the minimum wage of Tk8000 per month fixed for RMG workers in 2018 is fair.
“We have to remember that the success behind the RMG industry in Bangladesh is because of the fact that we had an abundance of labour which we could hire at a very competitive rate compared to other countries,” he added.
Asif Ibrahim also recommended necessary changes to the law to bring white collar employees and informal workers within a legal framework for their protection.
Barrister Reshad Imam as moderator stated that the key objective should be to strike the right balance between workers’ rights and employers’ rights so that no one suffers.
He also stated that the government should not arbitrarily pass directions during this pandemic but should only do so after consultation with the representatives of workers and employers.
ALAP is an independent, non-political, non-profit making platform with the main objective of bringing together leading jurists, industry leaders and development partners to discuss current legal and policy issues and challenges facing Bangladesh, to conduct research into these issues, to formulate concrete law and policy reform proposals to be presented to the policymakers and to disseminate knowledge.
