In Bangladesh, the main legislation in relation to employment status in the private sector (other than Economic Zones) is regulated by the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, as amended from time to time (the “Act”) and the rules promulgated under it. 

The Act mainly applies to workers. According to Section 2(65) of the Act, ‘worker’ means “any person including an apprentice employed in any establishment or industry, either directly or through a contractor, [by whatever name he is called] 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 [or supervisory] capacity.”

Any employee falling outside the ambit of this distinction is termed as ‘non-worker’. In Mehdi Hassan and Another v. The Government of Bangladesh and Others, 1 LCLR [2012] HCD 380, the High Court stated that, inter alia, a person having the authority to appoint any employee or take any disciplinary action, and discharge any policy-making responsibility on behalf of the company, will not be considered a ‘worker’ and hence will not be governed by the Act. Nonworkers are governed by a contract of employment which must not be in violation of the Bangladesh Contract Act, 1872. 

Therefore, the categorization of employment status is between ‘workers’ and ‘non-workers’.

Types of employment contracts depend on the classification of worker (as defined by the Act) in an establishment. For instance, an employment agreement of an apprentice, substitute, casual, temporary or seasonal worker will be for a specific purpose and likely to be finished within a fixed period of time. On the other hand, the term of an employment agreement with a permanent worker can be indefinite but it is also possible to terminate the agreement as per the provision of the Act.

The main requirement for an employment contract to be valid is laid down in Section 5 of the Act, which states that no owner can appoint any worker without furnishing a letter of appointment and identity card with photograph. The Labour Rules, 2015 (the “Rules”) further stipulates the information that should be included in the appointment letter, which includes among others, the name of employee, designation, date of appointment and existing service rules. The appointment letters and identity cards must be preserved in Form 6(A) as prescribed by the Rules.

There is no express provision in relation to part-time employees in the Act or Rules.

There is no provision in the Act or Rules regarding the assignment of employment contract.

In Bangladesh, there is no business transfer law which protects employees affected by a merger, acquisition or outsourcing transaction. However, a merger or acquisition through an amalgamation of two or more companies requires court interference, and the court may direct such orders for the benefit of the employees concerned. Recently, in a merger between two telecommunication companies, the court directed the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to fix and declare a scheme for employees who are to resign voluntarily.

No, there is no provision in the Act or Rules which deals with statutory rights for employees on change of control of an employer.

This is generally dealt with in the contract and is usually seen with regard to change in policies.

No, Bangladesh is not an ‘employment-at-will’ jurisdiction. 

The employer has the right to terminate a worker for reasons of physical or mental incapacity or continued ill-health certified by a registered medical practitioner. (Section 22 of the Act). 

According to Section 23 of the Act, worker may be dismissed without prior notice or pay in lieu thereof if he is- (a) convicted for any criminal offense, or (b) he is found guilty of misconduct.

Moreover, according to Section 26 of the Act, a worker may be terminated by the employer with notice (as prescribed by the Act and depends on the type of employment) or payment in lieu of notice.

As per the Act, dismissal has been defined as termination by the employer as a result of misconduct. Therefore, in order to dismiss a worker, the worker must be found liable for misconduct following the process as laid down by the law. In the event of dismissal, the employer is not required to provide any notice or pay in lieu.

There is no provision in the Act in relation to the protection of whistleblowers.  Whistleblower is defined in Section 2(5) of the Public-interest Information Disclosure Act (Provide Protection), 2011, as “the person who discloses public interest information to a competent authority.” Section 5 of the Publicâ€interest Information Disclosure Act (Provide Protection), 2011 states “if the whistleblower is a service holder only for disclosing public interest information- demotion, harassment, transfer or forced retirement or any other measures cannot be taken against him that would incur loss of his psychological, financial or social standing or no departmental actions can be taken against him or he cannot be treated discriminatorily”. As such, protection for whistleblower is provided for the service holder for disclosing the matter mentioned in Information Disclosure Act (Provide Protection), 2011.

While there is no express provision on the employees’ right to privacy, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (the “Constitution”) guarantees right to privacy in Article 43. Under Article 43(b) of the Constitution, every citizen shall have the right to the privacy of his correspondence and other means of communication. This provision is included in the chapter of fundamental rights so the state is bound to implement the privacy of citizen, otherwise the victim may have the right to move the High Court Division in accordance with clause (1) of Article 102 [Article-44].

The right to equality and the principle of non-discrimination is recognized by the Constitution of Bangladesh. While Article 27 of the Constitution states that the people of Bangladesh are equal in the eyes of the law and Article 28 forbids any discrimination on the basis of race, caste, religion, sex or place of birth.

Section 345 of the Act clearly stipulates that equal wages must be given to workers for equal work done and no discrimination shall be carried out on the basis of whether the worker, is male, female or handicapped. The Act further prohibits any person from behaving with a female employee in a way that may seem to be indecent or unmannerly or that is repugnant to the modesty or honor of that woman.

The statutory rights of leave as set of in the Act are as follows:

• Annual leave- On completion of 12 months in an establishment, 1 day for every 18 days of work; 
• Compensatory weekly holiday;
• Casual leave- 10 days in a calendar year with no accumulation of unspent leave;
• Sick leave- with full wages for 14 days in a calendar year; and
• Festival leave- 11 days.

No, there has not been any changes in the Act with regards to leaving benefits.  Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2018 is a recently proposed legislation in relation to employment status in Bangladesh. Under the proposed amendment act, maternity leave has been made mandatory and pregnant women are entitled to eight-week maternity leave and other benefits within three days of submission of necessary documents.

Although many employers opt to incorporate non-compete in their employment agreements, the enforceability of such clauses is yet to be ascertained by the Courts in Bangladesh. The non-compete provision has to be weighed against Article 40 of the Constitution, being the right to freedom of profession or occupation. Article 40 provides that every citizen possessing the required qualifications shall have the right to enter upon any lawful profession or occupation and to conduct any lawful trade or business. Section 27 of the Contract Act 1872, also, provides that an agreement in restraint of trade would be void and states: 

 ‘Every agreement by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade or business of any kind, is to that extent void’. 

A literal interpretation of the statute appears to suggest that a non-competition clause is likely to be void. There is very little case law in relation to this, and is, therefore, the clause is largely unchallenged.

As stated in the earlier response (answer to question no.15), a non-compete clause is likely to be void. Therefore, employees cannot be terminated for refusing to sign a restrictive covenant that is contradictory with the right to enter upon any lawful profession or occupation and to conduct any lawful trade or business as provided by Article 40 of the Constitution.

According to Section 264 (1) of the Act, an establishment in the private sector may constitute for the benefits of its worker a provident fund.

According to section 234 of the Act, companies are required to establish a Workers’ Profit Participation Fund (WPPF) and workers’ welfare fund and pay five percent of its net profits during a fiscal year to the Participation Fund, with the proportion of the payment to the participation Fund and the welfare fund being 80:20.   

Pension system in Bangladesh is mainly observed in government services and are settled according to the rules of the Public Servants (Retirement) Act of 1974. There is no established retirement and pension concept in private sector in Bangladesh. Therefore, the laws of Bangladesh do not require any contribution to a pension or retirement scheme.

Yes, certain benefits are mandated in the laws of Bangladesh, which include – “Overtime facilities” (Section 108), “casual leave”(Section 115), “sick leave” (Section 116), ”annual leave” (Section 117), “festival holidays” (Section 118), “Maternity benefit”, “Funds Benefits in addition to other benefits” (Section 249 of the Act); “Right to and liability for payment of maternity benefit” (Section 46 of the Act) and “Death benefit” (Section 19 of the Act); “Payment of Provident Fund” (Section 29 of the Act), and “Payment of wages for unveiled leave” (Section 11),  any sum payable for the reason of termination of employment (Section 27(4)).

The mandatory retirement age in our jurisdiction for employment in the private sector is sixty years. Section 28 of the Act states the provision for retirement of worker as follows: “A worker employed in any establishment shall, notwithstanding anything contained elsewhere in this chapter, retire from employment ipso facto on the completion of the sixty-year of his age”.

The law provides no guidance on this.

The incidents of COVID-19 cases are so recent that there is no provision of law in Bangladesh, particularly in Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 (as amended from time to time) and Labour Rules, 2015 addressing scenarios in connection to COVID-19 particularly making COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for the employees. Termination on the basis of refusal to get a vaccine is furthermore not addressed in the law. Therefore, if the employer intends to secure his/her right to terminate employees for reasons which include refusal to get vaccinated, the employer may include the same in its internal policies. Section 3 (1) of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 gives employers the right to formulate their own services rules provided the said rules are not any less favourable to that provided in the law and under section 3 (2) the said rules must be approved by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE). 

Yes, an employer can require employees to return to work in an office, except when there is a government order to close the office. If an employee refuses to return to the office and is absent for more than 10 (ten) days at a time without obtaining leave, he/she can be dismissed on the ground of misconduct if found guilty after an inquiry made by the inquiry committee consisting of an equal number of representatives of the employer and the worker.