ILO Technical Recommendations on the Feasibility Assessment of an Employment Injury Insurance Scheme in Bangladesh

The ILO Technical Recommendations on the Feasibility Assessment of an Employment Injury Insurance Scheme in Bangladesh consolidates technical outputs on an Employment Injury Insurance (EII) scheme in Bangladesh that have been produced by the ILO since 2015 to the Government and the social partners. This report recommends a progressive approach to the implementation of a full-fledged scheme by demonstrating feasibility of a pilot-project scheme for the ready-made garment (RMG) sector.

It builds on the following political commitments towards establishing an EII scheme to date, i.e.:
  • Commitment item no. 13 of the July 2013 National Tripartite Plan of Action (NTPA) in which the Government of Bangladesh and the social partners committed to develop a tripartite+ protocol for compensation of the families of workers who die and workers who are injured as a result of occupational accidents and diseases. It is mentioned that the development of this protocol will include a review of the appropriateness of the level of current legal entitlements to compensation, bearing in mind the provisions of ILO Convention No. 121.
  • Letter of Intent signed in 2015 between the Government of Bangladesh represented by the Ministry of Labour, the Government of Germany and the ILO for introducing an EII System for Bangladesh, in recognition of the need to fulfil the abovementioned item no. 13 of the NTPA.
  • Honourable Prime Minister’s commitment to establish a national EII scheme expressed to the ILO Deputy Director General in April 2015, to the ILO Director General during his mission in Dhaka in December 2016 and at the occasion of the celebrations held on 1 May 2017. In different public occasions, the Prime Minister reiterated her commitment.
This report consolidates the outcomes of extensive public consultations held between 2015 and 2017 on a draft legal framework and a financial assessment prepared by the ILO on the basis of Convention No. 121.  It takes also into consideration the discussions held within the High-Level National EII Tripartite Committee, including the official submissions made by the social partners following the meeting in July 2018. The report lays foundation for furthering national dialogues to establish a national EII scheme to cover all workers in Bangladesh, by starting with the ready-made garment sector in the first phase of implementation.

Although most of the technical reports were written by the ILO (close collaboration between GEIP and the ILO Country Office for Bangladesh), some of the documents were prepared by local and international partners:

Main ILO Technical Outputs