ILO Governing Body, 356th session - EU Statement - Report by the Government of Bangladesh on progress made in the implementation of the road map to address all outstanding issues mentioned in the article 26 complaint

European Union Statement

 ILO Governing Body, 356^th session  

23 March – 2 April 2026

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Report by the Government of Bangladesh on progress made in the implementation of the road map to address all outstanding issues mentioned in the article 26 complaint concerning alleged non-observance of Conventions Nos 81, 87 and 98

GB.356/INS/11

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Geneva, 30 March 2026

Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Georgia, the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Switzerland and the United Kingdom align themselves with this statement. 

We welcome the submission by Bangladesh of a progress report on the implementation of the ILO Roadmap on the Labour Sector in Bangladesh (2021-2026), as well as the openness and engagement of the Bangladesh authorities in addressing labour rights issues according to their international commitments.  We thank the Office and fully support the continued engagement of the ILO in promoting labour rights in Bangladesh and monitoring the implementation of the Roadmap. 

We congratulate Bangladesh on the 12 February parliamentary elections and referendum on Constitutional reform, which were credible and competently managed, and look forward to working with the new government of Bangladesh to support reforms, including in the labour sector. 

We further congratulate Bangladesh on the ratification of Conventions 155, 187 and 190, hereby having ratified all fundamental ILO conventions. Effective implementation of these Conventions will be an important step forward for labour rights in Bangladesh. 

We welcome the efforts by the interim Government in adopting an ordinance amending the Bangladesh Labour Act (BLA), which was preceded by tripartite consultations and now needs to be endorsed by the new government and the newly elected parliament. We look forward to the assessment of the compliance of the amended BLA with international labour standards, once it has been formally adopted. We encourage continued tripartite consultations to advance all necessary labour law reforms and their implementation in practice. 

In line with the observations of the CEACR on Convention 87, we expect the reform of the BLA to fully align with international labour standards. In particular, trade union registration should be possible for workers in all sectors, facilitated by a fair and transparent process, which limits administrative hurdles to the necessary and is free from outside interference. 

With a view to the ILO Roadmap and the National Action Plan on labour rights – both foreseen to conclude this year, we note that  the work on amending the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Labour Acis still in the process and should be expedited. Its reform is an integral part of the ILO Roadmap and the National Action Plan on labour rights. 

We urge Bangladesh to lift the remaining obstacles to the unionisation of workers, as well as the systematic refusal of workers’ rights regarding wage payments, overtime and working conditions. 

We welcome the decision of the former interim government to drop criminal cases involving thousands of workers and labour leaders, filed over several years following the protests over minimum wage. However, the 2023 cases of workers and labour activists being injured, killed, harassed or intimidated for association with trade unions or in connection with wage demands and protests have still not been investigated. Investigations must swiftly be conducted, to hold those responsible to account and to effectively implement preventative measures - including through meaningful social dialogue.

Continued and intensified efforts are needed in training, including on any use of force to meet the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, for the relevant law enforcement authorities to deal with strikes and protests and more broadly to respect human rights, including labour rights.

We acknowledge certain efforts to ensure independent and free inspections and encourage the Government to build on these efforts and further strengthen effective enforcement and full functionality of labour inspectorates, with enough adequately trained labour inspectors.

We reaffirm our strong commitment to continue our cooperation with Bangladesh, in partnership with the ILO, through the Team Europe Initiative on decent work, and we encourage the Government to build on the progress achieved and to tackle the remaining challenges with due urgency. We will continue to closely monitor the progress in the implementation of the roadmap.

We support the decision point.                                  

Thank you, Chair.

1. ^  North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.