The European Union has called on Bangladesh to show tangible progress on labour rights to avoid temporarily losing the generalised system of preferences (GSP) benefit that allows the country duty-free export to the 28-nation economic bloc.

“This will be essential for Bangladesh to remain eligible for the Everything But Arms regime,” said the EU in a letter to the government on May 31.

The letter came less than two weeks after the third review meeting of sustainability compact, which took place in Dhaka on May 18.

It was sent to the secretaries of foreign, commerce and labour ministries, venting dissatisfaction as Bangladesh did not reply to its previous letter of March 16.

Dhaka did not present any time-bound action plan in the compact meeting in order to address the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendations on labour rights, as was requested in the letter. 

“With regards to the preferences granted to Bangladesh under the EU's GSP regulation, we would like to recall that Bangladesh needs to demonstrate, as a matter of urgency, that concrete and lasting measures are taken to ensure respect of fundamental human and labour rights,” the EU letter reads.

 “Without such progress, the EU will need to monitor the situation more closely in the context of the GSP regulation, including through a dedicated mission to Bangladesh. Such monitoring could eventually lead to the launching of a formal investigation, which could result in temporary withdrawal of preferences.”

In fiscal 2015-16, Bangladesh exported goods worth $18.68 billion to the EU, which was 54.57 percent of the total receipts for the year.

Of the $18.68 billion, $17.15 billion came from apparel shipments. Currently, export to the EU accounts for over 60 percent of Bangladesh's total garment export receipts in a year. 

The letter was signed by Sandra Gallina, director of the Directorate General of Trade of the European Commission, Jordi Curell, director of Labour Mobility at the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, and Lotte Knudsen, managing director of Human Rights, Global and Multilateral Issues at the European External Action Service. 

“We take this opportunity to recall the EU position: it is essential that the government of Bangladesh comes forward with a strategy with concrete and time-bound actions for each of the ILO recommendations ahead of the 106th session of the ILC,” it said.

It is of the utmost importance and urgency to provide the compact partners and the ILO supervisory mechanisms with the necessary confidence in Bangladesh's commitment to respect fundamental labour rights, the EU said.

The 106th session of the International Labour Conference started in Geneva on Sunday. 

“The government of Bangladesh should then start immediately implementing this strategy following a pre-defined and appropriate time line, in order to deliver tangible progress by the end of August 2017,” the EU letter says.

Referring to the May 18 meeting in Dhaka, the letter said the joint conclusions agreed at the meeting were insufficient to restore confidence in Bangladesh's commitment to the compact.

The EU asked Bangladesh to undertake legislative changes to the Bangladesh Labour Act and the implement rules to bring it in line with ILO standards and to allow full freedom of association.

It called for lowering the membership threshold requirement for unionisation to 10 percent from the existing 30 percent. The EU also wants to see the trade union registration procedures are made smooth immediately.

It also called for legislative changes to the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) law to bring it in line with the ILO standards.

The drafts of the revised laws of the Bangladesh Labour Act and the EPZ law have to be presented to the ILO committee of Expert on the Applications of Conventions and Recommendations by August 31 and adopted before the International Labour Conference in June next year.

It also asked Dhaka to ensure the newly formed garment Tripartite Consultative Committee acts as an effective and credible body through establishing a well-resourced secretariat immediately.

The EU also wants to see that the newly established Remediation Coordination Council functions properly.

It asked Bangladesh to investigate unfair labour practices in a transparent and accountable manner through the development and implementation of Standard Operating Procedures by August 31.