More than 13,000 cases are pending in the seven labour courts of Bangladesh, with over a half of the courts now operating without a registrar, and one of the courts in Dhaka, which alone has 4,194 cases pending, non-functional as it has no chairman.
Most of the pending cases involve the apparel sector and relate to claims of unfair dismissal, non-payment of wages and trade union rights.
The huge backlog is, however, not just due to the low number of courts and inadequate staffing but also because, as a general practice, the labour courts tend only to sit for half a day.
Three of the seven courts are based in Dhaka, two in Chittagong, one in Rajshai and one in Khulna.
The Labour Appellate Tribunal registrar, M Kamal Hussain, told New Age that as of March 31, 13,257 cases were pending with labour courts —246 cases in the appellate tribunal, 1869 cases in the Dhaka First Labour Court, 4215 in the Dhaka Second Court, 4194 cases in the Dhaka Third Court, 291 cases in the Rajshahi Court, 940 in the Khulna Court, 933 cases in the Chittagong First Court and 569 cases in the Chittagong Second Court.
The labour ministry will need to request the law ministry to assign a district judge or additional district judge on deputation to activate the court in Dhaka, which is without a chairman.
According to an official, this could, however, take a long time.
The Labour Appellate Tribunal is not in a much better condition. The tribunal has 246 cases pending but the court has been functioning without a member judge for four years although Section 218(5) of the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 stipulates that one or more benches can be formed with two or more members.
Before the current appellate tribunal's chairman was appointed in May 2010, the post had been vacant for a year and a half.
Israfil Alam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour ministry, blames both the labour and law ministries for the situation.
'We have discussed the lack of four registrars and the absence of an appellate member judge with the labour ministry several times but nothing has so far been done,' he told New Age.
The registrar's post is a non-cadre post and is appointed by the Public Service Commission, so the labour ministry blames the PSC which has failed to provide the courts with staff.
The labour ministry also says that it has tried to deal with the backlog of cases by asking the law ministry to allow district judge's courts to hear labour law cases along with its usual cases.
After waiting for a year, the labour ministry finally
heard in early April that the law ministry had turned down its request as the district courts were already 'overloaded with pending cases.'
'If the government wants to increase the number of labour courts, it can do so by following the existing labour law,' the law ministry said in its letter.
Israfil criticised the law ministry's decision. 'When hearings relating to children and explosive substances can proceed in the district judges' courts, why not the labour cases?'
'If we cannot take the courts close to the workers, they will never enjoy the benefits of the existing labour laws as it becomes difficult for them to continue legal battles when the courts are far away from them,' Israfil told New Age.
Razekuzzaman Ratan, general secretary of the Samajtantrik Sramik Front, stressed the importance of setting up more labour courts to ensure the legal rights of the workers as in the current situation the hapless workers are unwilling to file cases.
'If workers file cases they need to travel long distances, which is time-consuming and too costly for them,' he said, pointing out that a worker from Sylhet has to travel to Chittagong to file a case.
The number of labour courts has not expanded since 1970 despite the huge increase in the level of employment in the country and changes introduced by the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 which resulted in the labour courts having to deal not only with civil law labour disputes but also criminal prosecution involving labour law.
The parliamentary standing committee has recommended that there should be a labour court in every district but no action in this regard has been taken by the labour ministry.
The huge backlog of cases exists even though the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 requires that all cases should be completed within 60 days.
'The problem is that the law does not specifically say what should happen if the case is not resolved in the two-month period,' said labour lawyer AKM Nasim. As a result the cases just get extended.
The lengthy court process and the scarcity of labour courts is a big problem for workers. 'I have to get a whole day's leave from my current employer in Narsingdi to attend a hearing in the labour court in Dhaka of an old case filed against my former employer who terminated me illegally,' Habibur Rahman told New Age.
He said that it was extremely difficult to continue to pursue the case.
'Most of the cases in the Khulna court are filed against influential shrimp industry owners and they manage to influence the court to delay the proceedings, which breaks the patience of the poor workers,' a member of the Khulna labour court told New Age.
Source: New Age