A Comparative Analysis Between the Bangladesh Labor Law 2006 and 7 General Codes of Conduct
Bangladesh – German Development Cooperation
PROGRESS House 10C, Road 90, Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh Tel: +880 2 9887567, Fax: +880 2 8813769 E-mail: progress@gtz.de, Websites: www.gtz.de, www.gtz-progress.org
Working Paper No – 6
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE BANGLADESH LABOR LAW 2006 AND 7 GENERAL CODES OF CONDUCT
By Ameena Chowdhury Hanna Denecke
Dhaka, October 21, 2007
PROGRESS (promotion of social, environmental and production standards in the ready-made garment sector) is a joint program of the Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by GTZ.
Executive Summary
The Readymade Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh is a highly export oriented sector and therefore extremely volatile to requirements of international buyers. Since the adherence to international social standards has become a mandatory requirement in the international business arena, the local suppliers have to be compliant to these standards in order to remain in business. There have been some significant revisions to the Bangladesh Labor Law in 2006. This newly revised law already covers a lot of the common standards like employment conditions, occupational health and safety issues as well as the ILO core labor standards. Besides being complaint to the national labor law, the suppliers must also adhere to the international standards. These international standards may be defined through their individual buyers’ codes of conduct or general codes of the conduct. Compliance to the buyers’ codes of conduct is mandatory but compliance to the general codes of conduct is optional unless the buyer accepts a specific general code as a substitute for its own audits or requirements. These voluntary monitoring or verification initiatives have taken root since the 1990s to add legitimacy and credibility to companies’ social and environmental compliance programs. This study is a comparative analysis of the Bangladesh
PROGRESS House 10C, Road 90, Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh Tel: +880 2 9887567, Fax: +880 2 8813769 E-mail: progress@gtz.de, Websites: www.gtz.de, www.gtz-progress.org
Working Paper No – 6
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE BANGLADESH LABOR LAW 2006 AND 7 GENERAL CODES OF CONDUCT
By Ameena Chowdhury Hanna Denecke
Dhaka, October 21, 2007
PROGRESS (promotion of social, environmental and production standards in the ready-made garment sector) is a joint program of the Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by GTZ.
Executive Summary
The Readymade Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh is a highly export oriented sector and therefore extremely volatile to requirements of international buyers. Since the adherence to international social standards has become a mandatory requirement in the international business arena, the local suppliers have to be compliant to these standards in order to remain in business. There have been some significant revisions to the Bangladesh Labor Law in 2006. This newly revised law already covers a lot of the common standards like employment conditions, occupational health and safety issues as well as the ILO core labor standards. Besides being complaint to the national labor law, the suppliers must also adhere to the international standards. These international standards may be defined through their individual buyers’ codes of conduct or general codes of the conduct. Compliance to the buyers’ codes of conduct is mandatory but compliance to the general codes of conduct is optional unless the buyer accepts a specific general code as a substitute for its own audits or requirements. These voluntary monitoring or verification initiatives have taken root since the 1990s to add legitimacy and credibility to companies’ social and environmental compliance programs. This study is a comparative analysis of the Bangladesh