Out of the six crore workers in Bangladesh, only around one crore have their trade union rights recognised.

Labour unions and rights activists met Eamon Gilmore, the European Union’s special representative for human rights, in the capital today and raised their demand for a minimum wage of Tk 23,000 for the ready-made garment sector.

I hear from union leaders, labour law advocates and “garments owners”. Unfortunately, I heard different versions of what's going on in the field.

Areas where further progress was needed are labour organisation in EPZ, negative publicity regarding harassment of NGOs and labour unions, and lack of data and transparency on factory inspections.