BILS organised roundtable titled CSR, Social Justice and Workers’ Welfare on January 2, 2018 at National Press Club VIP Lounge aimed at ensuring workers participation at activities Corporate Social Responsibility-CSR in Bangladesh.

The roundtable was organised to discuss about CSR basic knowledge, CSR activities in Bangladesh, National and International Standard, BILS-CSR activities and BILS-CSR guideline (draft).

BILS Advisory Council Member Roy Ramesh Chandra presided over the meeting while BILS Executive Director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed was present as moderator. People’s Republic of Bangladesh Government State Minister for Finance and Planning Ministry M A Mannan, MP was present as chief guest in the roundtable.

Appreciating BILS role to prepare recommendations for Trade Union in CSR activities State Minister said, “It is advisable to represent Trade Union in CSR policy formulation committee with the initiative of the ministry.” He also said that CSR should be managed from net profit after fulfilling all the workers’ demands.

Discussants in the roundtable said that transparency and accountability should be ensured in case of utilizing CSR activities for actual underprivileged workers. Defining CSR amount on the basis of business capital or investment distribution should be mandatory, they added. They emphasized on brining CSR under the compulsory of legal framework. They also demanded to the organisations which are conducting CSR activities for maintaining a tripartite framework.

Law Department, University of Dhaka Professor Dr. Nakib M. Nasrullah, BILS Vice Chairan Anwar Hossain, Joint Secretary General Md. Serajul Islam, BILS Executive Council Secretary Advocate Delwar Hossain Khan, Unilever Employes Union Chittagong President Md. Aktaruzzaman and Leaders of BILS  and BILS affiliated National Trade Union Federations were present in the roundtable among others.