Government may exempt export-oriented sectors

The government is mulling exempting export-oriented sectors including RMG from the existing mandatory obligation of group insurance amid strong opposition from rights groups, officials said.

The government has already approved the proposed amendment to the labour law keeping such provision, they added.

Hundred per cent export-oriented sectors, where central fund has been established, are not needed to introduce group insurance for their workers, according to the draft.

The deceased, injured and the incapable workers in the sector would receive amount equivalent to group insurance from the central fund, it added.

The amended labour act-2013 incorporated the provision of formation of central fund for the export-oriented industrial sectors exempting the factory owners from the provision of companies' profit sharing with their respective workers, sources said.

Since then, central fund has been established only for the country's readymade garment sector (RMG), they added.

The government has been collecting money at a rate of 0.03 per cent from each RMG export receipts from July 1, 2016 for the fund.

Labour leaders, however, strongly opposed the government's move to exempt export-oriented sector from the mandatory group insurance provision saying it would not protect the interest of the workers.

Factory owners should have to be liable for introducing group insurance and to pay premium from their own fund, they added.

Labour leaders alleged that many of the provisions including group insurance, compensation amount and membership threshold for trade union registration have been included in the draft amendment only to protect the interest of the factory owners.

"Strongly opposing the government's move to exempt RMG factory owners from introducing group insurance, Md Towhidur Rahman, former secretary general of IndustriAll Bangladesh council said "Such provision would be nothing but an attempt to deprive workers of their rights."

The owners intend to enforce a system of ensuring workers' welfare with their (workers) money, he claimed.

Such exemption for factory owners from introducing group insurance would not protect the welfare and rights of workers, Hameeda Hossain, convenor of Sramik Nirapatta Forum (SNF) said.

It is one kind of waiver for factory owners from their responsibility, the SNF said in a statement.

It is mandatory for the employer of an establishment employing at least 100 permanent workers to introduce group insurance under the existing insurance laws, according to the labour law.

"Provided that the recovery of the insurance claim due to death of a worker shall be the responsibility of the employer and he shall make arrangement for payment of the amount so recovered from such insurance claim directly to the dependents…" according to the law.

Despite legal obligation of introducing group insurance under the existing insurance laws, the garment factory owners have stopped the process from November last year and started realizing amount equivalent to insurance claim directly from central fund.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) so far received about Tk 500 million from the central fund to disburse insurance claims of the workers of its member factories, labour ministry officials said.

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