Despite the 2015 labor rules mandating benefits like provident fund, gratuity and group insurance, most private owners keep these facilities limited to paper only. As a result, these workers have no job security, no pension and lack any minimal financial or social safety net.
Worth noting is that Bangladesh Labor Act-2006 and Labor Rules-2015 outline various facilities and protections for private sector employees, but there is no effective implementation at the regional level. The government had taken the initiative to draft new ‘service rules’ for private employees, the review of which is expected to be completed in May. However, as July comes to an end, there appears to be no progress on those rules.
Urban and economic analysts say millions of valuable man-hours are lost every day due to waterlogging and transportation crisis in Dhaka. The entire financial and mental burden of this lost time is borne by the private employees alone. While productivity falls due to time lost on the road, workers are forced to put in extra hours to compensate for the losses.
There may be less water on the roads once the rains stop, but the “waterlogging” of long-unseen exploitation and wage stagnation in the lives of millions of private sector employees shows no signs of clearing up any time soon.