Economic Justice

Empowering Workers in Bangladesh to Secure Rights, Dignity, and Justice

GOAL

Through the Economic Justice Cluster, BLAST undertakes legal empowerment for workers, particularly women, enabling them to claim their rights, demand fair treatment, and live with dignity. The goal is to strengthen workers’ capacity to assert their rights, access legal aid services, and advocate for equitable treatment and improved working conditions in alignment with national labour and related laws, policies, and international labour standards.

BLAST works to protect and promote the rights of workers across Bangladesh by combining direct legal support, strategic advocacy, and evidence-based research. Its work spans from providing legal aid and pursuing landmark public interest litigation to engaging policymakers and producing impactful research and multimedia campaigns.

Targeted Benefeciaries

We support workers across diverse formal and informal sectors, including:

• Ready-made garments (RMG)

• Construction

• Leather goods

• Domestic work

• Migrant labour

Our focus extends to:

• Worker communities

• Trade union leaders

• Labour rights activists

• Trade union associations and federations

• Factory management

• Brands

Key Issues

The Economic Justice Cluster addresses a wide range of labour rights challenges, including:

• Workplace injustices: violations of rights, unsafe working conditions and lack of fair treatment.

• Access to justice: barriers to legal remedies for violations of labour rights.

• Unfair labour practices: inadequate compensation, job security, forced overtime, unpaid arrears, unlawful job terminations, overdue benefits, and restrictions on freedom of association.

• Gender-based discrimination and violence: sexual harassment and gender-based violence in workplaces, commuting routes, and residences.

• Occupational health and safety: unsafe working conditions and lack of preventive measures.

• Climate change and labour: ensuring a just transition for workers in shifting industries and implementing heat stress management measures to safeguard occupational health in high-temperature environments.

• Weak enforcement of labour laws: advocating to upgrade and enforce the Labour Act to reflect evolving workplace realities.

Key Activities

Legal Services

BLAST provides a range of legal aid services to help workers resolve disputes and secure rights related to job security, benefits, and compensation, including:

  • Legal advice offered directly and through the Sromik Jigyasha (Worker’s Query) mobile app.
  • Mediation services to resolve labour and family disputes.
  • Litigation services to represent workers in labour and other courts.
  • Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to address violations of rights affecting workers’ communities.

A key focus has been PILs to ensure justice for workplace injuries, particularly in response to major industrial disasters:

  • Spectrum Garments collapse (2006)
  • Tazreen Garments fire (2012)
  • Rana Plaza collapse (2013)
  • Tampaco Industry fire (2016)
  • KTS Garments fire (2019)
  • Shezan Juice Factory fire (2021)

BLAST has filed PILs in these cases to ensure proper investigation, prosecution, punishment of those responsible, and fair compensation in line with the law and the Constitution.

Digital Tool for Legal Services:

To make legal information more accessible, BLAST developed the Sromik Jigyasha app, launched in February 2018 with support from the Laudes Foundation. Available in Bangla and English on Android devices via Google Play Store, the app has reached 27,000 users. While designed for RMG workers, it is open to workers in all sectors, factory management, and community members. It provides information on Bangladesh labour laws, land laws, and remedies for violence against women, including sexual harassment.

 

Advocacy

BLAST engages policymakers, employers, lawyers, judges, authorities, workers, trade unions, labour rights activists, NGOs, INGOs, media, and institutions to strengthen labour laws and promote fair workplace practices.

Key advocacy priorities include:

  • Promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in labour cases.
  • Implementing the Use of Information Technology by The Court Act, 2020 for virtual hearings.
  • Ensuring fair compensation for workplace accidents.
  • Advocating for extended maternity leave and benefits, operational daycare centres, and improved workplace hygiene.
  • Implementing High Court guidelines and promoting ILO Convention 190 to eliminate sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
  • Tackling job insecurity, forced overtime, unpaid arrears, unlawful job terminations, overdue benefits, and restrictions on freedom of association.
  • Ensuring occupational health and safety.
  • Supporting workers during transitional or crisis periods, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Linking climate change to job security and promoting a just transition.

BLAST also promotes leadership and capacity building by training paralegals, self-help groups, trade unions, factory management, and relevant authorities to empower workers to negotiate, organise, and protect their rights.

 

Research

BLAST conducts research to inform advocacy strategies and improve workplace conditions, including studies on the working environment, stakeholder mapping, and legal frameworks.

One notable study, Tire Them Out, examined the legal system for compensation in workplace injury and death cases. Based on this research, BLAST produced:

  • Docu-fiction: Compensation for Workplace Accident – A Tiresome Way. The docu-fiction and AV reached hundreds of thousands of people on social media, generating strong engagement and thousands of views across YouTube and Facebook.
  • Audio-visual (AV): Solution Pathway, promoting better solutions such as an Employment Injury Scheme (EIS).

Major Achievements

Image Gallery