BEPZA HIRES LABOR CONCILATORS IN ANTICIPATION OF

UNCLAS DHAKA 001743 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB ETRD PGOV BG SUBJECT: BEPZA HIRES LABOR CONCILATORS IN ANTICIPATION OF NEXT PHASE OF EPZ LAW ¶1. (SBU) Towards the end of 2005, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) hired two labor "conciliators" pursuant to chapter five --Conciliation and Arbitration -- of the EPZ Workers Association and Industrial Relations Act, 2004 (the EPZ Law). According to the law, the conciliators' purpose is to settle disputes before referral to arbitration and within the context of an impending strike. BEPZA Executive Chairman Zakir Hossain told laboff that BEPZA received World bank funding to hire the conciliators as part of a multi-million dollar institution strengthening grant. ¶2. (SBU) Laboff spoke to one of the BEPZA conciliators, Shahida Begum, who is responsible for the Savar/Dhaka EPZ. Begum, who is in her 50s, says that she was a lawyer for 21 years practicing civil and criminal law, but specialized in labor law. Hired in late December 2005, she said she attended the same December 2005 training session as the counselors and arbitrators and has been using the time since then to "observe the labor situation in the EPZs." Asked if BEPZA had sufficiently informed workers on the procedure on the use of counselors, conciliators, and arbitrators, she replied in the affirmative but was not able to articulate the exact process. ¶3. (SBU) The American Center for International Labor Solidarity's (ACILS) Field Representative, Rob Wayss, told laboff that hiring conciliators was premature as they are needed only in a situation where workers have the right to strike. Under current law, EPZ workers do not have the right to strike, he said. Asked if BEPZA was simply planning ahead for the time when the elections for the Workers Associations would permit the right to strike, Wayss said that the conciliators, along with the counselors and arbitrators, were hired at salaries twice the market rate for their profession, yet BEPZA still was unable to obtain qualified personnel. He said that many truly qualified human resource managers were wary that BEPZA would not be able to compensate them at this high rate after the World Bank grant runs out in two years. Laboff asked EPZ's Hossain how he intended to sustain them after the grant ran out. Hossain replied that BEPZA would find a way. CHAMMAS