University of Dhaka
Problems and Prospects of Trade Union in Bangladesh
Trade
Union:
Trade Union is an
organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as
protecting the integrity of its trade, achieving higher pay, increasing
the number of employees an employer hires, and better working conditions. It’s a
group of employees in a particular sector, whose aim is to negotiate with
employees overpay, job security, working hours, etc. using the collective power
of the members.
Some Authors
definitions are given below
“Trade union is a
continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining and improving
the conditions of their working lives.”
-Sydney & Webb
Functions
of Trade Union:
The most common, but by
no means only purpose of trade unions are maintaining or improving the
conditions of employment. Over the last three hundred years, many trade unions
have developed into a number of forms, influenced by differing political and
economic regimes. The immediate objectives and activities of trade unions
include protection and promotion of the interests of their members. Regulating
the relations between workers and employers or workers and workers or employers
and employers is another objective of trade unions. Besides these there are
some more objectives of trade unions. They are -
Provision
of benefits to members:
Early unions would give
their members unemployment pay in case they were hurt on the job, unfairly
fired, or sick. This is usually done by the government today. Unions may also
give their members a lawyer to represent them if they are ever sued in court or
charged with a crime. Early trade unions, like Friendly Societies, often
provided a range of benefits to insure
members against unemployment, ill health, old age and funeral expenses. In many
developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state; however,
the
provision of
professional training, legal advice and representation for members is still an
important benefit of trade union membership.
Collective
bargaining:
Where trade unions are
able to operate openly and are recognized by employers, they may negotiate with
employers over wages and working conditions. The leaders of a union work with
management (the people who run the business) in order to get a contract that
gives workers what they want. This is because union leaders can threaten to
strike.
Industrial
action:
Trade unions may
enforce strikes or resistance to lockouts in furtherance of particular goals.
Political
activity:
Trade unions may
promote legislation favorable to the interests of their members or workers as a
whole. To this end they may pursue campaigns, undertake lobbying, or
financially support individual candidates or parties (such as the Labor Party
in Britain) for public office. Unions often work to get laws passed which help
their cause. Some raise money for politicians who are friendly to unions. They
also lobby for laws which help out unions. Some political parties are very
close to unions, like the Labor Party in the United Kingdom.
Article 8 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ensure the right
to form and join trade union and use strikes
Strikes
If collective
bargaining does not work, unions often use strikes to get their demands.
However, the threat of a strike is usually enough: over 98% of union contracts
are renewed without a strike.
With these four major
objectives trade unions of Bangladesh work for maintaining or establishing
these minor objectives. Workers satisfaction and protect their rights are focus
point of trade unions.
1. Democracy and Human Rights; Empowerment
and Equality; Dignity, Credibility and Responsibility of trade union; are among
the major objectives of trade unions.
2. To strengthen the capacity of the trade
union movement to become recognized as an active partner in the social dialogue
regarding the development process of Bangladesh.
3. To contribute to the effective
participation and functioning of the TU movement in the tripartite mechanism.
4. To develop a workers friendly mind-set of
the society where workers rights are recognized and honored.
5. To contribute to a greater unity in labor
movement and encourage organizing more workers in Trade Unions.
6. To contribute to strengthening of the
democratic process of Trade Unions and their ability to improve services to
their members.
7. To contribute to the process of
establishing an exploitation free society by ensuring workers fair share in the
national wealth and development.
8. To contribute to strengthening national,
regional and international solidarity and networking of the workers
organizations and Institutions.
9. To enhance the ability and skill of the
TU movement to render services, and the capacity in order to address the
priorities of their members.
10. To enhance the ability and skill of the TU
movement to recruit more members and gain more practical strength to combat
challenges.
Trade
Union in Bangladesh:
As a developing country
trade union plays an important role in Bangladeshi industrial society. There
have been found three basic structure of trade union in Bangladesh.
National
Federation: National Trade Union federation consists of basic unions
irrespective of job categories. A National Federation was constituted by two or
more basic trade unions irrespective of the Trade. Now it needs 20 registered
basic/Industrial Unions.
Industrial
Federation: It is the body of unions from the same industrial sector. It
deals with common problems and demands of the sector. Basic unions within the
sector are its members.
Basic
Union: This is the main union formed by the direct participation of the
workers Grass root level activists are the members of this Factory level/
workplace based unions. Elected body of industry of factory level unions works
as Collective Bargaining Agent- CBA
Total number of registered trade
unions in Bangladesh
|
Categories
|
Total number of unions/federations
|
Number of unions included
|
Number of members
|
|
National federation
|
32
|
1,264
|
1,263,665
|
|
Industrial federation
|
108
|
721
|
640,221
|
|
Garments federation
|
26
|
80
|
50,149
|
|
Basic union
|
5,242
|
-
|
2,069,614
|
BANGLADESH TEXTILE & GARMENT
WORKERS LEAGUE
Membership
Potential
membership : 57,100
Actual
membership : 52,800
Thereof
women : 17,277
Baseline
information on membership
Textile: Male
: 29,120 Female
: 1,605
Garments: Male : 6,403 Female
: 14,147
Home workers: Male : - Female : 1,525
Gender
distribution in decision-making structure (female Percentage)
Federal
level 16%
Union level 10%
Branch level 3% – 5%
Characteristics
of Trade Union in Bangladesh:
There are some common
characteristics which are found in Bangladeshi trade unions. Such as
1.
Lack
of awareness about trade unions: Most of our
Bangladeshi industrial workers come from the rural area and approximately
maximum of them have a very low educational background or none. So they don’t
well understand that what are trade union for and how can they achieve their
legal right by trade union.
2.
Paternalistic/hierarchical
system: Our society is more or less used to the paternalistic
method of governing. There are some factors which do not let the system to be
fully democratic. The workers do not have equal say in the decision making.
3.
Lack
of proper information: Information gap to the root level
members in the associations is common phenomena. So they just fall victims of
sudden decision given by the leaders.
4.
Leaders
sometimes forgo common interest:Sometimes leaders do
not take proper care of employee interest. They give emphasize on their
personal interest and let the common interest be relaxed.
5.
Negative
attitude towards unionism:
As all the members are not appropriately known to the legal rights and
functions of trade union, they may slower trade union for achieving its goal by
creating negative impact.
6.
Provision
of equal right of men and women:Our trade unions have
long sought about the portions enjoyed by men and women workers and they have
achieved a result that our workers regardless of men and women enjoy equal
wages.
7.
Take
part in political activities: Our trade union
leaders not only lead the workers of the organizations but also play an
important role in the political field of the nation thus contributing to the
national development.
8.
Instigated
by political interest: Too much involving in politics of
the leaders may create consolidations in the way of achieving goal.
9.
Take
part in management process: Our union leaders take active part
in the decision making of the organization management and thus they make sure
that the sayings and frustrations of common workers are being presented before
the employer.
10.
Bargaining
with the employer: In the time of bargaining situations
our trade union leaders take active part in the bargaining and present their
issue on behalf of the members. Thus they manage to collect the rightful
position o the workers in the organization.
History
of Trade Union in Bangladesh:
The British rulers
introduced Trade Union Act, 1926. The main purpose of the Act was to provide
registration for trade unions and in certain respects.The East Pakistan Trade
Unions Act, 1965 was enacted repealing the Trade Unions Act, 1926. The Labor
Disputes Act, 1965 was enacted and Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969 was
enacted integrating the above two Acts.
Government of
Bangladesh declared a labor policy in 1972. The right to strike and collective
bargaining in the nationalized industries was prohibited for six months by
Presidential order no. 55 in May 1972.
In 1973, the right to
strike and lockout, as granted by IRO, 1969 was withdrawn.
In 1974 Act completely
suspended the democratic rights of workers by prohibiting trade union
activities such as strikes, lock-outs, and collective bargaining.
The military regime of
1975 imposed restrictions on the rights of collective bargaining.
The Industrial Relations
(Amendment) Ordinance, 1977 liberalized the Rights of Freedom of Association.
The Labor Policy of
1980 restored the right to freedom of association to a considerable extent.
In 1982 the military
regime banned trade union activities, strikes, and right of freedom of
association.Full trade union activities were restored by the democratic
government in 1991.
In 2006, an updated,
consolidated and unified version of labor laws was enacted.
During the Emergency in
2007-2008 that lasted for 23 months, trade unions and collective bargaining
were prohibited and the determination of collective bargaining agent could not
be made. However, full trade union activities were restored by the democratic
government in 2009.
Bangladesh Labor Law
2006 chapter XIII completely describes how a trade union will be formed and
registered in Bangladesh. Any trade union in Bangladesh must be registered and
regulated under this law.
Strength
and weakness
As many 23 central
federation till now being registered. No central federation has strength that
they can launch nation wide struggle independently. They do not have such
organizational or financial resource either. Almost all political party has a
trade union.All these except a few trade union, mostly depend on support and
financial help from the political party. That is also a reason that the ruling
party’s trade union center has much more affiliate unions than others. When
there is shift of government will be shift in affiliation also. The trade unions
here also depends on support from International Trade Union Federation and
Foundations. They gets funds from International Trade Union Federation and
Foundations for holding seminars, publications and other activities. The gate free passage to go abroad to attend seminars and meetings. The foreign visit is
so frequent for some trade union leaders that they are almost occupy with
arrangements of travel – procure visa, preparing seminar paper and others and
left hardly any time to do trade union work.
This become an
important aspect of trade union movement here. An example can be sit here,
Jatiyo Sramik League, labor wing of Awamy League has recently took affiliation
of International Confederation of Trade Union. Formerly it was with
former Soviet Union led World Federation of Trade Union. Abolish of Soviet Union
and socialist state in eastern Europe WFTU had lost its membership and resource
and now noting a position to offer free air ticket for foreign trip and offer
hospitality in Hotel Metropole or Hotel Ukrine in Moscow to its affiliates in developing
countries. Though AL chief Sheikh Hasina took personal initiative in the
beginning of eighties to get SL affiliated with WFTU, SL did not lost no time to
shift to ICFTU. Though there are mounting pressure for trade union unity from
the workers, the trade union movement, initially set up as an extended hand of a
political party, continues to function more or less as an extended hand of the
political party of its affiliation.
Trade
unions in Bangladesh and its impact
Limitations
In Bangladesh Trade
Unions have a lot of unavoidable problems. These are
1. Lack of
consciousness: Trade union are not actually completely aware about employees legal rights and duties.
2. Lack of Unity: In
Bangladesh trade unions are separated for political influence.
3. Lack of knowledge:
The workers of Bangladesh don’t have enough knowledge about their rights and
duties.
4. Political influence:
In Bangladesh, trade unions work a part of political parties not as a free
right saving association.
5. Division of trade
union: Bangladesh is a country where every organization has more trade unions
in name only. The overall productivity got down.
Positive
impacts
Trade union plays a
major role in creating ideal working conditions.
1. Trade union always
helps management to create better policies for workers.
2. Trade unions
negotiate for the standard wage and benefits with the management.
3. Trade union helps
the management to increases the productivity as well as the profit.
4. Political
influence’s existence makes the trade union not to interfere in management
decisions.
5. Trade union is
hugely helping the management to produce more and implementing management
tactics.
Negative
impacts
1. Trade Unions are
creating a surplus of manpower but not of productivity.
2. Trade union of
Bangladesh bargains more than they understand because of the limitations of
their knowledge. If don’t consult then they strike.
3. Trade Unions have
equal power of management then clashes are started.
4. In companies labors are
awarded for good work and threatened for bad work. But if it’s punished then
trade union interfere and don’t let to happen the punishment. So it increases
crime of the labors.
5. Trade union leaders
always try to save their interest first then the labor.
6. For the power of
politics trade union always dishonor the management.
Problems
of trade unions in Bangladesh
The shortcomings or the
weakness of the trade union movement in Bangladesh are as follows:
1.
Lack of Balanced Growth
Trade unions are often
associated with big industrial houses. A vast majority of the working
population is without any union backing. The entire agricultural sector is
highly unorganized in Bangladesh. The agricultural workers are subject to all
kinds of exploitation. The same is true with respect to those working in small
scale and cottage industries. Lack of balanced growth of trade unions in all
sectors is one of the major weakness of the trade union movement in Bangladesh.
2.
Low Membership
Trade unions, with the
exception of few have low membership. This is because many employees are not
willing to join unions although they are ready to enjoy the benefits arising
out of the union actions. The reasons for the hesitation of employees to join
unions include, among others, the need to take pat in strikes and such other
programmer, fear of pay cut and fear of punishment.
3.
Poor financial Position
Low membership is one
of the reasons for the poor financial position of the unions. Moreover, the
subscription payable by every member is kept low. Some members may not even
make a prompt payment of the small amount of subscription. These are also not
very many sources from which unions can get funds. They may probably depend on
contributions from philanthropists. The poor financial position can only weaken
the trade union movement.
4.
Political Control
Most popular trade
unions in Bangladesh are affiliated to certain political parties. These
political parties are only keen on making every grievance of the working class
a political issue to attain political gains. As a result the problem only gets
wide publicity and remains unsolved.
5.
Multiplicity of Unions
Often there exists more
than one union within the same industry each backed by a political party. These
various unions have conflicting ideology. If one union comes out with a strike
proposal another union may work against it. As a result, none of the unions is
actually able to solve the problems of the workers.
6.
Inter-Union Rivalry
The existence of many
unions within a particular industry paves way for what is called inter-union
rivalry. These unions do not work together for the cause of the workers. Each
union may adopt a different approach to the problem. The inter-union rivalry
may become a more serious problem of the workers. As a result, the employees
are unable to derive the benefits of collective bargaining.
7.
Lack of able Leaders
Another barrier to the
growth of trade unions is the lack of able leaders. Some union leaders give a
strike call even for petty problems that can easily be resolved through talks.
On the other hand, there are leaders who have secret pact with the management.
They get bribes from the government and work against the interests of the
employees. Some leaders don’t convene a meeting of the general body at all even
when a crisis develops. They take unilateral decisions that are thrust on the
employees.
8.
Lack of Recognition
Most management is not
prepared to recognize trade unions. This happens because of any of the
following reason.
The existence of low
membership that reduces the bargaining power of the union.
The existence of more
unions within the same industry.
Inter-union rivalry.
The indifferent
attitude of the employees themselves towards trade unions.
9.
Opposition from Employers
Apart from the fact
that most employers are not prepared to recognize trade unions, they also do
not let their employees from a union. This the employers are able to achieve by
adopting certain punitive measures like intimidating employees victimizing
union leaders, initiating disciplinary action against employees indulging in
union activities and so on. Some employers also start rival unions with the
support of certain employees. Sometimes, they may go to the extent of bribing
union leaders to avert a strike or such similar show of protest by employees.
The employers fail to understand that the union enables the employees to
express their grievances in a democratic manner and can also be used as a means
of promoting better labor management relationships.
10.
Indifferent Attitude of the Members
Union leaders alone
cannot be blamed for the weakness of the trade union movement. The indifferent
attitude of the members of certain unions is also a barrier. Some members do
not even make a prompt payment of the subscription amount. The treasurer of the
union has to go behind them, remind and persuade them to pay the subscription
that is often a very small amount. There are on the other hand, members who do
not attend the general body meetings nor do they bother to know what is
discussed in such meetings. There are still others who do not take part at all
in any of the programmer of the union organized to press the demands of the
employees like slogan shouting procession, demonstration, hunger strike etc.
Members generally expect the office-bearers to do all that is necessary to
achieve the demands.
Prospects
of trade unions in Bangladesh
The experts discussed
the problems and prospects of the trade unions in Bangladesh
Today there’re trade
union activities of Bangladesh where the politicians, representatives of the
state apparatus, MPs, the businessmen and journalists gathered under the
auspices of the discussion.
In Dhaka, there was the
regular meeting of the discussion on the theme “Trade unions in Bangladesh: the
role of the social modernization.”
The panelists discussed
the role that trade unions must belong to the effective model formation of the
social and labor relations at the present stage. They discuss the issues of trade union for the
prevention of the social and labor conflicts, the role of unions in improving
the labor law of the country, in particular the adoption of the New Law “About
Trade Unions”, the subject to collective bargaining.
The panelists also
discussed the initiative of on the
establishment of Trade Unions Council. The Council is the standing advisory
body to the fund, which aims are to facilitate the tasks implementation for the
social partnership development and collective bargaining regulation of the
social and labor relations for the group fund.
The meeting of the
trade union experts was attended by Chairman, Federation of Trade Unions of
Bangladesh. After limited time duration a general meeting is held at different
places. Here governing bodies of central trade union attend with president and
general secretary as well as organizing secretary. Sometimes representatives of
government attend the meeting and plays roles to maintain the worker’s right.
Different online, print, and electric media’s journalists gather there.
Suggestions
At different trade
union’s meeting and newspaper experts and specialists suggest various solutions
to solve present different problems and prohibitions. These are as follows
1. Strengthening
bilateral collective bargaining for solving problems quickly and effectively.
2. Multiplicity of
trade union creates the rivals in a union. So it must be reduced.
3. Political
involvement must be reduced.
4. Organization must
support financially as trade unions support the worker.
5. Training programs
under trade union should be helpful to develop the skills of the workers.
6. Trade union’s
function should be increased and widened throughout the organization.
7. Union leader must be
given importance and encourage the members.
8. If trust between
workers and management increases, productivity increases.
9. Management must help
and guide trade unions to settle industrial clashes and crisis.
10. Trade unions always
should demand reasonable thing to the management.
________0________
References:
Azijul
Haque, functions and introductory part, 2013,
Mesbahuddin
Ahamed, An article of Trade union in Banladesh, Registered Trade Union And
their members, 2013.
Dr.
M. Ataur Rahman, Industrial Relation, Zahin Publication, 2014.
BBS
(2009), Gender Statistics of Bangladesh 2008, Government of Bangladesh.
Very much Effective writing.
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