Govt urged to reform labour law to ensure tea workers’ rights

Labour experts on Thursday urged the government to reform certain sections of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, to safeguard accommodation, gratuity, casual leave and other service rights and benefits of tea workers.

They made the call during a stakeholders’ meeting titled “Legal Reform for the Tea Sector Workers, organised by the Solidarity Center in a hotel in Dhaka’s Topkhana area.

Their recommendations include amendments to Section 28 of BLA on pensions to ensure gratuity for tea workers, Section 115 of BLA on casual leave, Section 117 on earned leave, and Section 32 of BLA on eviction to ensure tea workers.

Md Habibur Rahman presented the keynote at the event while Khandaker Shafin Habib, Solidarity Center programme officer, moderated the event.

Representing the tea workers, Ram Bhajan Kairi said, “BLA is a discriminatory law. We all need to come forward to reform or scrap it, and if necessary, all those sections that deliberately exclude tea workers from exercising their rights. These are oppressive laws.”

Solidarity Country Program Director AKM Nasim said, “Tea sector workers have been historically neglected by all. Discussions and work concerning tea workers are often sporadic and isolated.”

He noted that there is a pressing need for comprehensive engagement with the tea workers, addressing all aspects of their lives and livelihoods. This approach must also consider making the tea industry a sustainable and vibrant sector.

Solidarity Center Deputy Country Program Director Monika Hartsel said, “Though tea workers are covered under the Bangladesh Labour Act, they do not enjoy the same protections as workers in other industries. In the spirit of the non-discrimination movement, it’s time to think more broadly about the most marginalised groups of workers.”

BILS Executive Director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed said that wages is a settled issue since the days of slavery. Tea, being a two-hundred-year-old industry, still hasn’t settled this issue.

He said the workers cannot bear the burden of employers’ or the government’s failure to conduct commerce. “We must end the vicious practice of a tea worker’s children becoming tea workers.”

Nripen Paul, acting general secretary of Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union (BCSU), Poresh Kalindi, BCSU treasurer, Joint Secretary of labour ministry Raza Mia, Deputy Secretary of commerce ministry Tarafdar Sohel Rahman, Joint Inspector General of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment Mahfujur Rahman Bhuiyan, Bangladesh Labour Bar Association General Secretary Mohsin Mojumder, Tahsin Ahmed Chowdhury, convener of Bangladesh Tea Association Labor Committee, and Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies also spoke on the occasion.