The wait for justice for hundreds of workers is getting ever longer, as the labour courts and the labour appellate tribunal are struggling to deal with a backlog of around 22,000 cases.
As the litigants languish month after month even year after year on the court premises, loss of jobs, earnings, time and energy continues to take a toll on their lives.
Workers of different sectors suffer not only for excessive delays the labour courts take to settle the cases, but also because the owners, taking advantage of loopholes in the law, often avoid obeying the court verdicts.
The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 stipulates that a case in a labour court should be disposed of within 60 days. If the case cannot be disposed of within 60 days, the court can extend the deadline for another 90 days with a valid reason.
However, rarely any case is disposed of in labour courts within the stipulated 150 days.
On March 30, 2014, Abdul Malek, a worker at a warehouse belonging to United Commercial Bank Limited filed a case with the Dhaka First Labour Court, accusing the bank of not issuing him an appointment letter.
In 2022, the court delivered verdict in favour of Abdul Malek, but the case still remained pending as the bank authorities filed a miscellaneous case with the labour court challenging the verdict, said Malek鈥檚 lawyer Abdullah Al Masud.
鈥業 have been going to the courts for the past 11 years,鈥� said a desperate Abdul Malek.
According to the Labour Appellate Tribunal data, 21,891 cases are now pending with 13 labour courts and the lone Labour Appellate Tribunal. Of the cases, 13,402 cases have been pending for over six months.
Currently,聽 1,223 cases are pending with the appellate tribunal, 4,676 cases are pending with the Dhaka First Court, 3,299 with the Dhaka Second Court, 2,614 cases with the Dhaka Third Court, 1,365 with the Chattogram First Court, 548 with the Chattogram Second Court, 91 with the Khulna court, and 73 with the Rajshahi court, 75 cases with the Rangpur court,聽 48 cases with the Sylhet court, and 66 cases with the Barishal court,聽 2,133 with the Narayanganj court, 152 with the Cumilla court, and 5,528 cases with the Gazipur labour court.
Appellate Tribunal registrar Hedaytul Islam, however, told 抖阴精品 that the backlog in the labour court cases was old and the current rate of disposal increased.
鈥楴ow, the case disposal rate has increased,鈥� he said, adding that they hoped to reduce the backlog of the old cases soon.聽聽聽聽聽
Court officials said that most of the cases were from the apparel sector and were related to disputes arising out of layoffs, dismissals, retrenchments, non-payment and delay in payment of wages and other benefits, compensation for workplace injuries, and violations of trade union rights.
Court officials and lawyers said that the workers鈥� cases are stuck with the labour courts year after year, mostly due to unnecessary time petitions repeatedly filed by the employers鈥� lawyers, frequent absence of labour court members, and filing of writ petitions with upper courts by owners challenging lower court verdicts.
A labour court consists of a chairman and two members one of whom represents the plaintiff, who are usually workers, and the other represents the defendant, usually the employers.
For a worker resorting to labour courts for justice for the alleged abuse of their labour rights comes often with a heavy toll on their income.
A worker needs a day鈥檚 leave, often unpaid, from the employer to attend a labour court hearing, said several suffering workers.
They also alleged that even after verdicts were won in favour of the workers, many owners simply disregarded the verdicts without even appealing against the verdict.
Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garment Workers Federation, said that the number of courts should be increased to expedite the case disposal.
鈥楾he workers are first victimised at the workplace and then again victimised after they go to the labour court,鈥� he said.