Lecture 05

Bangladesh Labor Act 2006 (Selected

Portion)
Abdullah Al Ahad
 National Labor Law Commission
consists of 38 members and lead
by Justice Abdul Kuddus
Chowdhury in 1992.
 The framed
questionnaire and
Commission a
different stake holderssent
i.e. to
employers, workers, CBA leaders,
the
NGOs to get their views and the
recommendations for amending
the than labor laws.
 The commission submitted a
report after 2 years of its
constitution.
 The held
consultations
Commission with the workers’
representatives, CBA leaders
and employers’ representatives
to effectively involve them in
the process of renovation of
labor laws in Bangladesh.

 Subsequently Bangladesh Labor

Act 2006 came into force on
October 11, 2006.
① This Act may be called the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006.
② It shall come into force at once.
③ Save as otherwise specified elsewhere in this Act, it extends to the whole of
Bangladesh.
④ Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section , this Act shall not apply
to-
(a) Offices of or under the Government;
(b) Security printing press;
(c) Ordnance factories;
(d)establishments for the treatment or care of the sick, infirm, aged, destitute,
mentally disabled, orphan, abandoned child, widow or deserted woman, which are
not run for profit or gains.
(e) Shops or stalls in any public exhibition or show which deal in retail trade and which
is subsidiary or to the purpose of such exhibition or show;
(f) Shops or stalls in any public fair or bazaar for religious or charitable purpose;
(g) Educational, training and research institutions;
(h) Hostels and messes not maintained for profit or gains;
(i)In respect of chapter, ii, any shop, commercial establishment or industrial
establishment owned and directly managed by the government where the workers are
governed by conduct rules applicable to government servants;
 In every establishment employment
of workers and other matters
incidental thereto shall be regulated
in accordance with the provisions of
this chapter 2.(Section 3).
 The purpose of this chapter is to
Protect the Rights of the Employees
at all levels in every kind of business
establishments regarding the
employment contract.
 This Chapter has total 33 sections
 10 Sections were amended in 2013:-
 Sections 3,4,9,10,17,19,23,27,28 &
33.
 Apprentice: who is engaged as learner and
paid an allowance during the training
period.
 Badli: who is engaged against the
temporary absence of any permanent
worker or probationer.
 Casual: whose engagement is of casual
nature
 Temporary: who is engaged for any job
which is absolutely temporary having the
probability of getting completed within a
limited period of time.
 Probationer: who is provisionally employed
to fill a permanent vacancy in a post and
has not completed the period of probation.
 Permanent: who has been engaged on a
permanent basis or who has satisfactorily
completed the period of probation.
 6 months for the worker employed in office/Clerical
activities
3 months for other workers.
Permanent worker might be given waiver if rejoins as
Probation a probationer for the same post
Period If an employee leaves during the probation period &
joins again under the same employer within next 3
years of such employment, He/She will be treated as a
probationer but the previous period of probation will
be calculated with new period
 No employer can employ any worker without
issuing the appointment letter
Employment
Letter

Every worker should have identity card with

photograph.
Identity Card
 Every employer at his own cost would provide service
book to each worker.
 Each of such service books to be kept under the
possession of the employer
 At the time of employment employer can ask for the
service book issued by the previous employer if the
worker claimed that he was employed before.
 Worker would handover the service book to the new
employer and the new employer would take the
possession of the service book by giving him a receipt.
 At the time of separation of any worker, the employer
would hand him over the service book
 Above provisions will not be applicable for any
apprentice, badli or casual worker
 Calculation of continuous service:
Section 145 of the new labor law provides for the method
of the calculation of the continuous service period of a
labor for the purpose of this law in the following manner:
 If the actual number of the working days of a worker is
240 days during the previous 12 months, He will be
considered to have worked for a continuous period of
one year.
 If the actual number of the working days in the previous
12 months is 120 days, He will be considered to be
employed there for a continuous period of 6 months
 Employer will maintain a workers’
register for all the workers which will be
kept ready for inspection by the
Inspector.
 The workers’ register to include each
workers name and date of birth, date of
employment, type of work, his working
hour, break hour for rest and meal, rest
day, group if he is included, the
shift/relay if the group is assigned with,
any other description as required by the
law.
 Govt. through rules may determine the
form of workers’ register, mode of its
maintenance and expiry.
 A worker who desires to obtain leave of absence shall apply to the
employer for the same, in writing, stating his leave address therein
 Employer or his authorized officer shall issue order on the application
within a week of its submission or two days prior to the commencement of
leave applied for, whichever is earlier.
 If due to emergent reasons, the leave applied for is to commence on the
date of application or within three days thereof, the order shall be given on
the same day.
 If the leave is granted a leave pass should be issued to the worker.
 If the leave is refused or postponed, the fact of such refusal or
postponement and the reasons thereof shall be communicated to the
worker before the date of the commencement of the leave prayed for and
be recorded in writing in a register to be maintained by the employer for
the purpose.
 If the worker after proceeding on leave desires an extension thereof, he
shall, apply sufficiently in advance before the expiry of such leave to the
employer who shall send a written reply granting or refusing the extension
of the leave to the worker to his leave address.
 If any worker is separated from
the service due to retrenchment,
discharge, termination, dismissal,
retirement, resignation or any
other reason and if there is any
annual leave is due to him,
employer as per the provision of
this law pay him the wages which
would have fallen due to him
during such leave.
 In case of death of a worker
after completing 3
years continuous service
with the same
employer, the worker
will be entitled to get
the benefit of 30 days
wages for every
completed year or 6
months thereof or
gratuity, whichever is
higher.
 The worker will get this
benefit in addition to his
other privilege of the
retirement.
Section 12 of the labor law deals with the stoppage of work by
the employer.
Following are the points to be noted:
 In the event of fire, disaster, breakdown of machineries,
epidemics or civil disorder or any other circumstance beyond
his control, the employer can stop the work of a section or
sections of his factory.
 In the event of such stoppage occurring at any time beyond
working hours, the employer will issue a notice in the notice
board of the factory to inform the labors as when to resume
the work and whether the worker is to be present at their
place at that time.
 The notice also mentions that those who are ordered to be
present, and if their presence is required for an hour only,
then they may not be entitled to get any benefit.
 The employer may in the event of
illegal strike by any section or
department may close down that
section or the establishment
partly or wholly and the workers
participating in the strike may not
be paid wages.
 Any other section or department
affected by such closure will also
be closed down but the workers
affected may be paid wages for
the first three days and the
amount should be equivalent to
payable amount in case of lay off
but the employer may not pay any
wages beyond this period.
 Lay Off
Lay-off means the failure, refusal or
inability of an employer to employ
any worker due to shortage of coal,
power or raw materials
accumulation of stock
breakdown or malfunction or
machinery. or the
of
 Eligible Ineligible
 Whenever a worker other than badli or  If he refuses to accept, on the same
casual, whose name is borne in the wages
muster roll of an establishment and
who has completed not less than one  If he does not present himself for
year of continuous service under the work at the establishment at the
employer is laid-off, he shall be paid by
the employer, for all days during which appointed time during normal
he is laid off, except for such weekly working hours at least once a day if so
holidays as may intervene. required by the employer
 Compensation shall be equal to half of
the total of the basic wages and
dearness allowance and ad-hoc or
interim wages and the full amount of
housing allowance, if any that would
have been payable to him.
 No worker shall, unless there is an
agreement to the contrary between
him and the employer, be entitled to
the payment of the compensation in
the aforesaid manner for more than
forty five days during any calendar year.
 Retrenchment

Retrenchment means the

expiry of the employment of a
worker on the ground of
termination. Any worker
may be terminated on the ground of
redundancy.
If any worker who has been in continuous service for not less
than one year under an employer, then in case of retrenchment
the employer has to ensure:
 One month’s notice in writing indicating the reason
or wages in lieu of such notice.
 One copy of the notice to the Chief inspector and another
copy to CBA representative if any.
 Compensation at the rate of thirty days wages for every
completed year of service or gratuity whichever is higher.
 Discharge
Discharge refers to the expiry of the
employment of a worker on the
ground of inability or incapacity
because of ill health. A worker may
be discharged from service for
reasons of physical or mental
incapacity or continued ill health.
An employer can discharge a worker
on the basis of the report of a
registered physician.
Compensation in case of discharge:
Every worker who has completed a
continuous service for 1 year shall be
entitled to get a benefit
 The worker will receive a 30 days
wages for every completed year
of service or the gratuity,
whichever is higher.
 Dismissal
Section 23 of the new labor law deals
with the dismissal of the worker on
the ground of misconduct and
conviction.
The section makes a room for the
employer to dismiss a worker
without serving him a notice or the
payment in lieu thereof.
A worker may be dismissed from the service without any notice or without any
wages in lieu notice regardless of any other separation mentioned elsewhere in
the Chapter if he:
 Is convicted for an offence, or,
 Is found guilty of misconduct under section 24 of Chapter 2
Misconduct as defined in that section:
 Willful insubordination, alone or in combination with others, to any lawful or reasonable
order;
 Theft, fraud or dishonesty;
 Taking or giving bribes
 Habitual absence, without leave, for more than ten days;
 Habitual late attendance;
 Habitual breach of any rule or law applicable to the establishment;
 Violent or disorderly behavior;
 Habitual negligence or neglect of work;
 Frequent repetition of a work on which fine can be imposed;
 Resorting to illegal strike or go slow or instigating others to do so;
 Falsifying, tampering the official document of the employer
A worker being found guilty of
misconduct as above may also be
imposed following punishment in
place of dismissal under special
circumstances.
 Termination;
 Demotion to lower grade;
 Held up promotion for at least
one
year;
 Held up increment for an year;
 Fine;
 Temporary suspension
without
wages;
 Rebuking and warning;
 Termination
The employer can terminate
a worker without assigning
any reason whatsoever, but
not dismissing.
The employer can terminate worker in the following manner as described in
Section 26 of the new labor law 2006-

For the permanent workers:

 Serving 120 days notice to the workers employed on the monthly basis.
 Serving 60 days notice to the other workers.
For the temporary workers:
 Serving 30 days notice to the workers employed on the monthly basis.
 Serving 14 days notice to the other employees.
Termination without any notice: The employer can even terminate the employment
of a particular worker without any notice if the employer pays the wages to the
terminated worker for the abovementioned period of notice.
Compensation on termination of a permanent worker: When a permanent worker is
terminated she or he shall be eligible to get a benefit of 30 days wage for every
completed year of service in an establishment in addition to the other benefit payable
to him
 Any permanent worker may resign
from the service by providing sixty
days notice in writing to the
employer.
 If any temporary worker resign
from the service by providing in
writing thirty days’ notice in the
case of monthly rated workers and
fourteen days’ notice in case of
other workers to the employer
 If the resignation is without notice
then the worker shall pay the
employer the amount equal to the
wages of the notice periods as
stipulated above.
Notwithstanding any clause mentioned elsewhere in this chapter
a worker will retire from the service attaining fifty-seven years of
age.
 The age will be determined as per the date of birth recorded in
the service book.
 Retiree worker shall be paid compensation as per the
approved service rules of the establishment or at the rate as
specified in this chapter, i.e. the employer shall pay
compensation to the worker at the rate of thirty days’ pay for
each completed year of service or gratuity, if any whichever is
higher and this compensation will be in addition to other
benefits payable to the worker under this chapter.
 If found suitable, the employer may engage the retired
worker
on contract basis.
 No adult worker shall be
required or allowed to work in
an establishment for more than
eight hours in any day:
 Provided that, subject to the
provisions of section 108 an
adult worker may work in an
establishment for more than
nine hours, but not exceeding
ten hours in any day.