Dhaka, Sep 18 (IANS) Bangladesh is engaging a lobbying firm to counter a US-based rights group’s move to cancel the generalised system of preferences (GSP) – that favours Bangladeshi garment export – on grounds that the country does not allow labour rights in export processing zones.
A high level team of government officials and industry representatives will be in Washington to help counter the move, for which a number of position papers have been prepared and rushed to the embassy in time for the hearing before the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) on Oct 4.
The rights group, American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO), has been lobbying for cancellation of GSP facilities for many years.
Though GSP facilities do not offer a lot of benefits to Bangladesh, its cancellation would confirm AFL-CIO’s claims that labour rights are violated in Bangladesh, The Daily Star said Tuesday.
The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (Bepza) says the campaign is based on falsehoods.
“The complaint of absence of workers’ rights in the EPZs is not true as about 177 elected workers representation & welfare committees (WRWCs) are actively working in the EPZs of Bangladesh,” said a position paper prepared by Bepza.
Questioning the rights body’s methodology for investigation, it said: “Bepza does not have any idea regarding intelligence activities and harassment of EPZ workers and representatives of the WRWCs by any law enforcing agencies.”
Bepza claims that the first phase of implementation of the EPZ Workers Association and Industrial Relations Act 2004 has been successfully completed, and implementation of the second phase of the act is going on.
The Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) in its paper claims the industry does not have a single child worker at its processing units across the country.
The association is also “not aware” of any incidents of repression on workers in the industry, and it has never faced any workers’ agitation, it stated.
In its petition, AFL-CIO made four complaints – violation of domestic and internationally recognised workers’ rights in EPZs; violation of domestic labour laws and internationally recognised labour standards in readymade garments industry; similar violations in shrimp and fish processing industries; and harassment and violence by government security forces against trade unions, workers and labour rights groups.