Experts urge easing trade union registration process

Labour rights experts have called on the authorities to ensure a transparent, predictable and time-bound trade union registration process in line with existing labour law.

They also warned that delays and additional administrative requirements could undermine workers' freedom of association.

The call came at a stakeholders' experience-sharing meeting on recent amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, organised by Solidarity Center in Dhaka yesterday (30 August).

At the meeting, labour leaders alleged that officials of the labour department under the labour and employment ministry were delaying union registration and demanding bribes. 

AKM Nasim, country programme director of Solidarity Center, presented the keynote paper, which reviewed several registration cases and found significant delays between application submission and acceptance.

Rashadul Alam Raju, general secretary of Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers' Union Federation, said online submission had become "a new hassle" as applications remain pending on the server for months.

Labour leader Kamrul Hasan said his organisation had submitted six applications for trade union registration over the past three months, but none had been approved. Referring to a Labour Department official by name, he alleged that the official openly demanded bribes.

"The longer the process takes, the higher the amount of the bribe becomes," he said.

Several other labour leaders also raised similar allegations against labour department officials.

Labour leader Nahidul Islam Nayan alleged that even instructions from the department's director general and the labour ministry secretary were not being followed by officials.

Nazma Akter, executive director of Awaj Foundation, said the general secretary of a proposed trade union was called by the industrial police and asked to meet the officer-in-charge. The union was later approved following pressure from the buyer, she added.

Jamil Ansar, senior programme officer at the ILO Country Office for Bangladesh, said the maximum punishment currently faced by labour department officials for misconduct was transfer from one office to another.

He urged labour leaders to raise their concerns collectively and make their voices heard.

Nasim's paper also raised concerns over the labour department's apparent practice of requiring employer certification of the total number of workers as a mandatory document for every application.

The paper cited the experience of Libas Knitwear Ltd Sramik Union, which submitted its application on 25 November 2025, but the department formally accepted it only on 27 February 2026—a delay of about 95 days.