Chapter-1 THE BANGLADESH LABOUR ACT, 2010

CHAPTER: I

PRELIMINARY

1.      Short title, commencement and application: (1) This Act may be called the Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006.

(2)      It shall come into force at once.

(3)      Save as otherwise specified elsewhere in this Act, it extends to the whole of Bangladesh.

(4)      Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3), this Act shall not apply to­

(a)       offices of or under the Government;

(b)      security printing press;

(c)       ordnance factories;

(d)      establishments for the treatment or care of the sick, infirm, aged, destitute, mentally disabled, orphan,   abandoned  child,  widow or deserted woman, which are not run for profit or gains;

(e)       shops or stalls in any public exhibition or show which deal in retail trade ? and which is subsidiary or to the purpose of such exhibition or show;

The act was published in Bangladesh Gazette Extraordinary date               October 11, 2006

(f)         shops or stalls in any public fair or bazar for religious or charitable purpose;

(g)  educational, training and research institutions;

(h) hostels and messes not maintained for profit or gains;

(i)    in respect of Chapter, II, any shop, commercial establishment or industrial establishment owned and directly managed by the Government where the workers are governed by Conduct Rules applicable to government servants;

(j)    workers whose recruitments and terms and conditions of service are governed by laws or rules made under article 62, 79, 113 or 133 of the Constitution, except, for the purposes of Chapters XII, XIII and XIV workers employed by the-

i.      Railway Department

ii.   Posts, Telegraph and Telephone Departments,

iii. Roads and Highways Department,

iv. Public Works Department,

v.   Public Health Engineering Department,

vi. Bangladesh Government Press.

(k) workers employed in an establishment mentioned in clauses (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h), but workers other than teachers, employed by any university shall not be subject to the restrictions except the purposes of Chapters XII, XIII and XIV;

(l)    seamen, except for the purposes of Chapters XII, XIII and XIV;

(m)           ocean going vessels, except for the purpose of ,     Chapter XVI;

(n) agricultural farms where less than ten workers are normally employed;

(o)domestic servants; and

(p)establishments run by the owner with the aid of members of his family and without employing any hired labor.

2. Definitions: In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-

i.     'retirement' means normal termination of employment of a worker on attaining certain age under section 28 of the Act.

Provided that retirement shall also include voluntary retirement from service on completion of 25 years of service in any establishment.

(ia) 'partial disablement' means, where the disablement is of temporary nature, such disablement as reduces the earning capacity of a worker in any employment in which he was engaged at the time of the accident resulting in the disablement, and, where the disablement is of a permanent nature, such disablement as reduces his earning capacity in every employment which he was capable of undertaking at that time:

Provided that every injury specified in the First Schedule shall be deemed to result in permanent partial disablement;

(ii) manufacturing process means any of the following processes-

(a)       for making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, painting, washing, finishing, packing or otherwise treating any articles or substance with a view to its use, sale, transport, delivery, display or disposal,

(b)      for pumping, oil, gas, water, sewerage or other fluids or slurries,

(c)       for generating, transforming or transmitting power or gas_,

(d)      for constructing, reconstructing, repairing, refitting, finishing or breaking up of ships or vessels, or

(e)       for printing by letter press, lithography, photogravure, computer, photo-compose, offset or other similar work or book-binding which is carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain or incidental to another business so carried on;

(iii) 'officer' in relation to a trade union, means any member of the executive thereof, but does not include an auditor or legal adviser;

(iv) flours of work' means the time during which the workers
employed are at the disposal of the employer excluding any
interval allowed for rest and meals;

(v) 'working journalist' means a person who is a whole time journalist and is employed as such in, or in relation to, any newspaper establishment, and includes an editor, leader writer, news editor, sub-editor, feature writer, reporter, correspondent, copy tester, cartoonist, news-photographer, calligraphist and proof-reader;

(vi) 'workshop' means any premises, including the precincts thereof, wherein any industrial process is carried on.

(vii) 'factory' means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon five or more workers ordinarily work on any day of the year and in part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on, but does not include a mine;

(viii) 'adolescent’ means a person who has completed his fourteenth year but has not completed eighteenth year of age;

(ix) 'mine' means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining minerals has been or is being carried on, and includes all works, machinery, tram-ways and sidings, whether above or below ground, in or adjacent to or belonging to a mine;

Provided that it shall not include any part of such premises On which a manufacturing process is being carried on unless such process is A process for pulp making or the dressing of minerals;

(X) 'gratuity' means wages payable on termination of employment of a worker which shall be equivalent to not less than thirty days' wages for every completed year of service or for any part thereof in excess of six months;

It shall be in addition to any payment of compensation or payment in lieu of notice due to termination of services of a worker on different grounds.

(x-a) 'tea plantation' means any land used or intended to be used for growing tea, and includes a tea factory;

(xi) 'retrenchment' means the termination by the employer of services of workers, not as a measure of punishment but on the ground of redundancy;

(xii) "public utility service' means-

(a)       the generation, production, manufacture, or supply of electricity, gas, oil or water to the public,

(b)      any system of public conservancy or sanitation,

(c)       hospitals and ambulance service,

(d)      fire-fighting service,

(e)       postal, telegraph or telephone service.

(f)         railways, airways, road and river transport,

(g)  ports,

(h) watch and ward staff and security services maintained in any establishment,

(i)    oxygen acetylene, and

(j)    banking;

(xiii) 'Tribunal' means the Labor Appellate Tribunal established under this Act;

(xiv) 'transmission machinery' means any shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of pulleys, couplings, clutch, driving belt or other appliance or device by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machinery or plant;

(xv) ‘trade union' means trade union of workers or employers formed and registered under Chapter XIII of this Act and shall include a federation of trade unions

(xvi) federation of trade unions' means a federation of trade unions registered under Chapter XIII;

(xvii) 'discharge' means the termination of services of a worker by the employer for reasons of physical or mental incapacity or continued ill-health of a worker;

(xviii) 'go-slow' means an organized, deliberate and purposeful slowing down of normal output of work by a body of workers in a concerted manner/and which is not due to any mechanical defect, breakdown of machinery, failure or defect in power supply or in the supply of normal material and spare parts of machinery;

(xix) 'day' means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at 6.00a.m.

(xx) 'Code of Civil Procedure' means Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 1908)

(xxi) 'shop' means any premises used wholly or in part for the whole-sale or retail sale of commodities or articles either for cash or credit, or where services are rendered to customers, and includes an office, store-room, godown, warehouse or workplace, whether in the same premises pr elsewhere, mainly used in connection with such trade or business, and such other premises as the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be a shop for the purpose of this Act;

(xxii) ‘Strike^’ means cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any establishment acting in combination or a concerted refusal, or refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment;

(xxiii) 'seamen' means any person forming part of the crew of any ship, but does not include the master of the ship;

(xxiv) 'executive committee^’ in relation to a trade union means the body of persons, by whatever name called, to which the management of the affairs of a trade union is entrusted by its constitution;

(xxv) 'settlement' means a settlement arrived at in the course of a conciliation proceeding and includes an agreement between an employer and his worker arrived at otherwise than in the course of any conciliation proceedings, where such agreement is in writing, has been signed by the parties thereto and a copy, thereof has been sent to the Director of Labour and the Conciliator;

(xxvi) 'river transport service' means a service carrying passengers or goods by river in vessels for hire or reward;

(xxvii) 'vessel’ means may mechanically propelled vessel used or capable of being used for the purpose of river transport and includes a tug or flat or barge;

(xxviii) 'administrative worker' means a person who is employed on a whole-time basis in, or in relation to, any newspaper establishment in any capacity other than that of a working journalist or a newspaper press worker;

(xxix) 'shift' means, where work of the same and kind is carried out by two or more sets of workers working during different periods of the day, each of such periods;

(xxx) 'dependant', in relation to a deceased worker, means any of the following relatives, namely:

(a)  a widow, minor child, unmarried daughter, or a widowed mother; and

(b) if wholly or partly dependant on the earnings of the worker at the time of his death, a widower, father or widowed mother, a daughter if unmarried or minor or widowed, a minor brother, an unmarried or widowed sister, a widowed daughter-in-law, a minor child of a deceased son, a minor child of a deceased daughter
where no father of the child is alive or, where no parent of the worker is alive, a paternal grandparent and   illegitimate   son   or   illegitimate   unmarried daughter;

(xxxi) 'establishment' means any shop, commercial establishment, industrial establishment or premises in which workers are employed for the purpose of carrying on any industry;

(xxxii) 'group of establishments' means more than one establishment under different employers, carrying on the same, similar or identical industry;

(xxxiii) 'regulation' means regulation made under this Act;

(xxxiv) 'maternity benefit' means the sum of money payable under the provisions of Chapter IV to a woman worker with leave;

(xxxv) 'prime mover' means any engine, motor, or other appliance which generates or otherwise provides power;

(xxxvi) 'adult' means a person who has completed eighteenth year of age;

(xxxvii) 'Code of Criminal Procedure' means Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (v of 1898)

(xxxviii) 'closed' means not open for service to any customer or to conduct any business;

(xxxix) 'dismissal' means the termination of services of a worker by the employer for misconduct;

(xl) 'plantation' means any estate which is maintained for the
purpose of growing rubber, coffee or tea and includes agriculture
farms other than experimental or research farm, employing ten
or more persons;

(xli) 'commercial establishment' means an establishment in which the business of advertising, commission or forwarding is conducted or which is a commercial agency, and includes-

(a)     a clerical department of a factory or of any industrial or commercial undertaking;

(b)     the office establishment of a person who for the purpose of fulfilling a contract with any commercial establishment or industrial establishment employs workers.

(c)      a unit of a joint-stock company,

(d)     an insurance company, a banking company or a bank,

(e)      a broker’s office,

(f)   a stock exchange,

(g) a club, a hotel or a restaurant or an eating house,

(h) a cinema or theatre,

(i)   such other establishment or class thereof as the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be a commercial establishment for the purpose of this Act;

(xlii) ‘rule’ means rule made under this Act;

(xliii) illegal strike' means a strike declared, commenced or continued otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of Chapter XIV;

(xliv) 'illegal lock-out' means a lock-out declared, commenced or continued otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of Chapter XIV;

(xlv) 'wages' means all remuneration, expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed, which would, if the terms of employment, expressed or implied, were fulfilled, be payable to a worker in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment, and includes any other additional remuneration of; he nature aforesaid which would be so payable, but does not include-

(a)     the value of any house accommodation, supply of light,  water, medical attendance or other amenity or of any service excluded by general or special order of the Government,

(b)    any contribution paid by the employer to any pension fund provident fund,

(c)      any traveling allowance on the value of any traveling concession,

(d)    any sum paid to. the worker to defray special expenses entitled on him by the nature of his employment;

(xlvi) 'arbitrator' means a person appointed as such under Chapter XIV

(xlvii) "Chief Inspector", 'Deputy Chief Inspector', 'Assistant Chief Inspector' and 'Inspector' shall respectively mean persons so appointed under Chapter XX;

(xlviii) "Director of Labour", 'Additional Director of Labour', 'Joint Director of Labour', Deputy Director of Labour' and 'Assistant Director of Labour' shall mean persons so appointed under Chapter XX;

(xlix) 'employer', in relation to an establishment, means any person who employs workers therein and includes-

(a)  a   heir,   successor,   assign,   guardian   or   legal representative, as the case may be, or such person;

(b)    any   manager   or   person   responsible   for   the management and control of the establishment,

(c)      in relation to an establishment run by or under the authority of the Government, the authority appointed in this behalf or where no authority is so appointed, the head of the Ministry or Division concerned,

(d)    in relation to an establishment run by or on behalf of a local authority, the officer appointed in this behalf or, where no officer is so appointed, the chief executive officer of that authority;

(e)      in relation to any other establishment, the owner of such establishment and every director, manager, secretary, agent or other officer or person concerned with the management of the affairs thereof, and

(f)        in relation to an establishment under the occupation of any person other than the owner, the person in occupation of that establishment or in ultimate control over the affairs of the establishment and the manager   or   other   person   concerned   with   the management of the affairs thereof;

(L) 'machinery' includes prime movers, transmission machinery and other appliances whereby power is generated, transformed, transmitted or applied;

(Li) "vehicle' means any mechanically propelled vehicle, used or capable of being used for the purpose of road transport and includes a_>tP0HejM/ehicle and a trailer;

(Lii) 'collective   bargaining   agent', in relation to an establishment or group of establishments, means the trade union of workers or federation of trade unions which, under Chapter XIII, is the agent of the workers in the establishment, or group of establishments in the matter of collective bargaining;

(Liii) 'relay' means, where work of the same kinds is carried out by two or more sets of workers working during different periods of the day, each of such sets;

(Liv) 'registered medical practitioner^’ means any person registered as such under the Medical and Dental Council Act, 1980 (XVI of 1980);

(Lv) 'registered trade union' means a trade union registered under Chapter XIII;

(Lvi) 'award’ means the determination by an arbitrator, or a Labor Court, or the tribunal of any industrial dispute or any matter relating thereto and includes an interim award;

(Lvii) ‘lock-out’ means the closing of a place of employment or part of such place, or the suspension, wholly or partly, of work by an employer, or refusal, absolute or conditional, by an employer to continue to employ any number of workers employed by him, where such closing, suspension or refusal occurs in connection with the industrial dispute or is intended for the purpose of compelling workers employed to accept certain terms and conditions of or affecting employment;

(Lviii) ‘lay off’ means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer on account of shortage of coal, power or raw material or the accumulation of stock or the break-down of machinery to give employment to a worker;

(Lix) 'power' means electrical energy and any other form of energy which is mechanically transmitted and is not generated by human or animal agency;

(Lx) 'industry' means any business, trade, manufacture, calling, service, employment or occupation;

(Lxi) industrial establishment' means any workshop or other establishment in which articles are produced, adapted or manufactured or where the work of making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing or packing or otherwise treating any article or substance, with a view to their use, transport, sale, delivery or disposal, is carried on or such other class of establishments which the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an industrial establishment for the purpose of this Act, and includes any-

(a)      road transport service or railway transport service,

(b)     river transport service,

(c)       airlines,

(d)     dock, wharf or jetty,

(e)       mine, quarry, gas-field or oil-field,

(f)         plantation,

(g)  factory,

(h)  newspaper establishment;

(i)    contractor's or sub-contractor's establishment for the purpose of construction, reconstruction, repair, alteration or demolition of any building, road, tunnel, drain, canal or bridge or ship-breaking or rebuilding or loading or unloading of cargo into vessel or thereof;

(Lxii) 'industrial dispute' means any dispute or difference between employers and employers or between employers and workers or between workers and workers which is connected with the employment .or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of work of any person;

(Lxiii) 'child' means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age;

(Lxiv) Labour Court' means a Labor Court established under this Act;

(Lxv) 'worker' means any person including an apprentice employed in any establishment or industry, either directly or through a contractor, to do any skilled, unskilled, manual, technical, trade promotional or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be expressed or implied, but does not include a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity;

(Lxvi) 'week' means a period of seven days beginning at 6.00 p.m. on Friday or such other night as may be fixed by the government in relation to an establishment in any area.

(Lxvii) 'total disablement' means such disablement, whether of a temporary or permanent nature, as incapacitates a worker for all work which he was capable of performing at the time of the accident resulting in such disablement;

Provided that permanent total disablement shall be deemed to result from the permanent total loss of the sight of both eyes or from any combination-of injuries specified in the First Schedule where the aggregate percentage of the loss of earning capacity as specified in that Schedule against those injuries, amounts to one hundred percent;

(Lxviii) 'road transport service' means a service carrying passengers or goods by road in vehicles for hire or reward;

(Lxix) 'newspaper' means any printed periodical work containing public news or comments on public news and includes such other class of printed periodical work as the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be newspaper;

(Lxx) 'newspaper press worker' means a person who is employed on a whole-time basis in any newspaper establishment for doing any printing work;

(Lxxi) 'newspaper establishment' means an establishment for the printing, production or publication of any newspaper or for conducting any news agency or news or feature syndicate;

(Lxxii) 'newspaper worker' means a working journalist, an administrative worker or a newspaper press worker;

(Lxxiii) 'conciliator' means a person appointed as such under Chapter XIV;

(Lxxiv) 'conciliation proceedings' means any proceedings before a conciliator;

(Lxzv) 'serious bodily injury' means any injury which involves, or in all probability will involve, the permanent loss of the use of, or permanent injury to any limb, or the permanent loss of or injury of the sight or hearing, or the fracture of any limb or the enforced absence of the injured person from work for a period exceeding twenty days;

(Lxxvi) 'decision', in relation to a Labor Court, means any decision or order of that Court, other than an award, finally disposing of case;

(Lxxvii) 'scheme' means scheme made under this Act