Bangladesh aims to make it easier to form trade unions within companies

A government decree seeks to lower the number of signatories required to establish a trade union within a Bangladeshi company. The move has unsettled the textile industry, which fears fresh waves of industrial action.

Under the proposal, establishing a trade union in Bangladesh would now require 20 signatories for companies with fewer than 300 employees, 40 for those with 301 to 500, and 100 for firms with 501 to 1,500 workers. For larger companies with 1,501 to 3,000 employees, the threshold would be set at 300, and at 400 for companies with more than 3,000 employees.

The textile sector was quick to respond, arguing that the measure goes well beyond what was agreed during the most recent tripartite negotiations, which brought together representatives of the government, workers and employers. Businesses now hope to temper the scope of the text through intervention by Bangladeshi MPs.

“We want only those who have been actively defending workers’ rights for a long time to join these unions,” Mahmud Hasan, president of BGMEA, the garment manufacturers’ federation, told the local press a few days ago.

“We don’t want the owners of jute companies (a related segment of the textile industry, editor’s note) or landlords, who rent housing to workers, to influence the formation of unions.”

These discussions come amid persistent social tensions. Bangladesh remains scarred by the massive protests of summer 2024, which led to the flight of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The BGMEA, for its part, underwent a form of government oversight following disputed internal elections, while a further increase in minimum wages was decided in December.

Any labour unrest in Bangladesh is closely watched by the West, for which the country has become one of the leading suppliers of clothing. Bangladesh is the third-largest supplier of clothing to the United States ($7.5 billion in 2024) and the second-largest to the European Union (€4.3 billion).

This position has been secured by low wages, while its main competitor, China, raised its minimum wage in the early 2010s. Yet it leaves Bangladesh heavily dependent on its textile sector, which generates 80% of its exports and 20% of its GDP—not to mention four million direct jobs.