BILS has been implementing a project to encompass leadership development in the Labour Rights movement in Bangladesh and the Academy of Work Courses. This project is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. As part of this project, BILS organized study circles in different project locations on a regular basis. On 17 April 2023, a study circle took place at Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Dhaka. The Youth Trade Union member and leaderships are the core participants of this study circle.
Earlier, BILS organized the first study circle here. This was the follow-up round of the study circle. All the participants from different Trade Union Federations who joined the first programme also joined this one. Some participants were changed by the federations as the programme demands the youth group from the federations, so age is a significant consideration.
Ahsan Habib Bulbul, General Secretary, SLF, Nazma Yesmin, Director, BILS, Iqbal Hossain, Programme Advisor, FES-BD, and Md. Meem Nur Hosain Turzo, Programme Officer, BILS were present at different sessions as experts.
The programme started with the welcome remarks from Nazma Yesmin. She shared her greetings to all the participants and also her expectations from this programme. With this programme young Trade Union leaderships and members would get a scope to learn about the subject matters which is relevant to workers’ rights. She also requested all the participants to have concentration to the session discussion and also share their thoughts regarding the discussion topic. In the earlier study circle BILS prepared a list of subject matters that the participants from Dhaka desires to learn. From that list one topic has been finalized for this session. This year the Labour Law reformation process is ongoing and earlier Dhaka participants were interested to learn about this one. So, BILS decided to conduct a session on Bangladesh Labour Law 2006. As Dhaka is surrounded by different industrial zone and huge numbers of workers are working in this area so youth Trade Union leadership from this area should have the knowledge of the Labour Law.
Ahsan Habib Bulbul also had some words. He appreciated BILS and FES for their initiative. He said, the youth Trade Union leadership from different sector has their field level experiences but they should also have some proper knowledge and learning from experts regarding different issues to Labour Market and Labour Rights. BILS has taken that initiative to share knowledge to the local level Trade Union members and leaderships. With this initiative in future the Trade Union movement would have some experienced leaderships.
Iqbal Hossain shared his words with the participants. He mentioned about the Academy of Work and its details. He describes the details about AoW and the enrollment process. AoW expects participants from these study circles. He also shared that, with this AoW the participants would get huge access to learning’s those issues regarding to workers’ rights.
After that, Md. Meem Nur Hosain Turzo came up with the Objective & Context of the Program. In his discussion he mentioned about the background of the study circle. With this study circle the local level Trade Union leadership and members will have better knowledge and understanding about different issues and subject matters relevant to labour rights. On the other hand among them which participants are capable off and interested to join the Academy of Work they will have the scope to join there. In every study circle BILS tries to accommodate resource persons/ trainers from BILS trainer’s pool who are very much acquainted with different labour issues and can easily connect with the participants. He also shared the further plan with the participants that this study circle will continue in future so, who have participated here they should continue in future.