BANGLADESH LABOR LAW - 2006 CHAPTER -1 - PRELIMINARY

CHAPTER I 

PRELIMINARY 

1. Short title, commencement and application: (1) This Act may be called the Bangladesh labour Act, 2006

(2) It shall come into force at once. 

(3) Save as otherwise specified elsewhere in this Act, it extends to the whole of Bangladesh. 

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3), this Act shall not apply to-

(a) Offices of or under the Government; 

(b) Security printing press; 

(c) Ordnance factories; 

(d) establishments for the treatment or care of the sick, infirm, aged, destitute, mentally disabled, orphan, abandoned child, widow or deserted woman, which are not run for profit or gains; 

(e) Shops or stalls in any public exhibition or show which deal in retail trade and which is subsidiary or to the purpose of such exhibition or show; 

(f) Shops or stalls in any public fair or bazaar for religious or charitable purpose;

(g) Educational, training and research institutions; 

(h) Hostels and messes not maintained for profit or gains; 

(i) In respect of chapter, ii, any shop, commercial establishment or industrial establishment owned and directly managed by the government where the workers are governed by conduct rules applicable to government servants; 

(j) workers whose recruitments and terms and conditions of service are governed by laws or rules made under article 62, 79, 113, or 133 of the constitution, except, for the purposes of chapters XII, XIII and XIV workers employed by the- 

(i) Railway Department 

(ii) Posts, Telegraph and Telephone Departments, 

(iii) Roads and highways Department, 

(iv) Public works Department, 

(v) Public Health Engineering Department,  

(vi) Bangladesh Government press.

(k) Workers employed in an establishment mentioned in clauses (b), (c) (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h) but 

workers other than teachers, employed by any university shall not be subject to the restrictions 

except the purposes of chapters XII, XIII and XIV; 

(l) Seamen, except for the purposes of chapters XII, XIII and XIV; 

(m) Ocean going vessels, except for the purpose of chapter XVI; 

(n) agricultural farms where less than ten workers are normally employed; 

(o) domestic servants; and 

(p) establishments run by the owner with the aid of members of his family and without employing 

any hired labour. 

2. Definitions: In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,- 

(i) ‘Retirement’ Means normal termination of employment of a worker on attaining certain age 

under section 28 of the Act. 

Provided that retirement shall also include voluntary retirement from service on completion of 25 

years of service in any establishment. 

(ia) ‘partial disablement’ means, where the disablement is of temporary nature, such disablement as 

reduces the earning capacity of a worker in any employment in which he was engaged at the time of 

the accident resulting in the disablement, and, where the disablement is of a permanent nature, such 

disablement as reduces his earning capacity inevery employment which he was capable of 

undertaking at that time: 

Provided that every injury specified in the First Schedule shall be deemed to result in permanent 

partial disablement; 

(ii) ‘manufacturing process’ means any of the following processes- 

(a) for making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, painting, washing, finishing, packing or otherwise 

treating any articles or substance witha view to its use, sale, transport, delivery, display or disposal, 

(b) for pumping, oil, gas water, sewerage or other fluids or slurries, 

(c) for generating, transforming or transmitting power or gas, 

(d) for constructing, reconstructing, repairing, refitting, finishing or breaking up ofships or vessels, 

or 

(e) for printing by letter press, lithography, photogravure, computer, photocompose, offset or other 

similar work or book-binding which is carried on by way or trade or for purposes of gain or 

incidental to another business so carried on; 

(iii) officer’ in relation to a trade union, means any member ofthe executive thereof, but does not 

include an auditor or legal adviser; 

(iv) ‘hours of work’ means the time during which the workers employed are atthe disposal of the 

employer excluding any interval allowed for rest and meals; 

(v) ‘working journalist’ means a person who is a whole time journalist and is employed as such in, 

or in relation to, any newspaper establishment, and includes an editor, leader writer, news editor, 

sub-editor, feature writer, reporter, correspondent, copy tester,  cartoonist, news-photographer, 

calligraphist and proof-reader; 

16

(vi) ‘workshop’ means any premises, including the precincts thereof, wherein any industrial process 

is carried on. 

(vii) ‘factory’ means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon five or more workers 

ordinarily work on any day of the year and in part of which a manufacturing process is being carried 

on, but does not include a mine; 

(viii) ‘adolescent’ means a person who has completed his fourteenth year but has not completed 

eighteenth year of age; 

(ix) ‘mine’ means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining 

minerals has been or is being carried on, and includes all works, machinery, tram-ways and sidings, 

whether above or below ground, in or adjacent to or belonging to a mine; 

provided that it shall not include any part of such premises on which a manufacturing process is 

being carried on unless such process is a process for pulp making or the dressing of minerals; 

(x) ‘gratuity’ means wages payable on termination of employment of a worker which shall be 

equivalent to not less than thirty days’ wages for every completed year of service or for any part 

thereof in excess of six months; 

It shall be in addition to any payment of compensation or payment in lieu of notice due to 

termination of services of a worker on different grounds. 

(x-a) ‘tea plantation’ means any landused or intended to be used for growing tea, and includes a tea 

factory; 

(xi) ‘retrenchment’ means the termination by the employer of services of workers, not as a measure 

of punishment but on the ground of redundancy; 

(xii) ‘public utility service’ means- 

(a) the generation, production, manufacture, or supply of electricity, gas, oil or water to the public, 

(b) any system of public conservancy o sanitation, 

(c) hospitals and ambulance service, 

(d) fire-fighting service, 

(e) postal, telegraph or telephone service, 

(f) railways, airways, road and river transport, 

(g) ports, 

(h) watch and ward staff and security services maintained in any establishment, 

(i) oxygen acetylene, and 

(j) banking; 

(xiii) ‘Tribunal’ means the labour appellate tribunal established under this Act; 

(xiv) ‘transmission machinery’ means any shaft, wheel, drum, pulley system of pulleys, couplings, 

clutch, driving belt or other appliance or device by which the motion of a prime mover is 

transmitted to or received by any machinery or plant’s 

(xv) ‘trade union’ means trade union of workers or employers formed and registered under chapter 

XIII of this Act and shall includea federation of trade unions. 

17

(xvi) ‘federation of trade unions’ means a federation of trade unions registered under chapter XIII 

(xvii) ‘discharge’ means the termination of services of a worker by the employer for reasons of 

physical or mental incapacity or continued ill-healthof a worker; 

(xviii) ‘go-slow’ means an organized, deliberate and purposeful slowing down of normal output of 

work by a body of workers in a concerted manner, and which is not due to any mechanical defect, 

breakdown of machinery, failure or defect in power supply or in the supply of normal material and 

spare parts of machinery; 

(xix) ‘day’ means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at 6.00 am 

(xx) ‘code of civil procedure’ means code of civil procedure, 1908(vof 1908). 

(xxi) ‘shop’ means any premises used wholly or inpart for the whole-sale or retail sale of 

commodities or articles either for cash or credit, or where services are rendered to customers, and 

includes an office, store-room, godown, warehouse or workplace, whether in the same premises or 

elsewhere, mainly used in connection with such trade or business, and such other premises as the 

government may, by notification in the official gazette, declare to be a shop for the purpose of this 

Act; 

(xxii) ‘strike’ means cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any establishment acting 

in combination or a concerted refusal, or refusal under a common understanding of any number of 

persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment; 

(xxiii) ‘seamen’ means any person forming part ofthe crew of any ship, but does not include the 

master of the ship; 

(xxiv) ‘executive committee’ in relation to a trade union means the body ofpersons, by whatever 

name called, to which the management of the affairs of a trade union is entrusted by its constitution: 

(xxv) ‘settlement’ means a settlement arrived at in the course of a conciliation proceeding, and 

includes an agreement between an employer and his worker arrived at otherwise than in the course 

of any conciliation proceedings, where such agreement is in writing, has been signed by the parties 

thee to and a copy thereof has been sent to the Director of Labour and the Conciliator; 

(xxvi) river transport service’ means a service carrying passengers or goods by river in vessels for 

hire or reward; 

(xxvii) ‘vessel’ means may mechanically propelled vessel used or capable of being used for the 

purpose of river transport and includes a tug or flat or barge; 

(xxviii) ‘administrative worker’ means a person who is employed on a whole-time basis in, or in 

relation to, any newspaper establishment in any capacityother than that of a working journalist or a 

newspaper press worker; 

(xxix) ‘shift’ means, where work of the same kind is carried out by two ormore sets of workers 

working during different periods of the day, each of such periods; 

18

(xxx) ‘dependant’ in relation to a deceased worker, means any of the following relatives, namely; 

 (a) a widow, minor child, unmarried daughter, or a widowed mother; and 

 (b) if wholly or partly dependant on the earnings of the worker at the time of his death, a 

widower, father or widowed mother, a daughter if unmarried or minoror widowed, a minor brother, 

an unmarried or widowed sister, a widowed daughter-in-law, a minor child of a deceased son, a 

minor child of a deceased daughter where no father ofthe child is alive or, where no parent of the 

worker is alive, a paternal grandparent and illegitimate son or illegitimate unmarried daughter; 

(xxxi) ‘establishment’ means any shop, commercialestablishment, industrial establishment or 

premises in which workers are employed for the purpose of carrying on any industry; 

(xxxii) ‘group of establishments’ means more than one establishment under different employers, 

carrying on the same, similar or identical industry; 

(xxxiii) ‘regulation’ means regulation made under this Act, 

(xxxiv) ‘maternity benefit’ means the sum of money payable under the provisions of chapter IV to a 

woman worker with leave; 

(xxxv) ‘prime mover’ means any engine, motor, orother appliance which generates or otherwise 

provides power; 

(xxxvi) ‘adult’ means a person who has completed eighteenth year of age; 

(xxxvii) ‘code of criminal procedure’ means code of criminal procedure, 1898 (v of 1898) 

(xxxviii) ‘closed’ means not open for service toany customer or to conduct any business; 

(xxxix) ‘dismissal’ means the termination of services of a worker by the employer for misconduct; 

(xl) ‘plantation’ means any estate which is maintained for the purpose of growing rubber, coffee or 

tea and includes agriculture farms other than experimental or research farm, employing ten or more 

persons; 

(xli) ‘commercial establishment’ means an establishment in which the business of advertising, 

commission or forwarding is conducted or which is a commercial agency, and includes- 

 (a) a clerical department of a factory or of any industrial or commercial undertaking, 

 (b) the office establishment of a person who for the purpose of fulfilling a contract with any  commercial establishment or industrial establishment employs workers, 

 (c) a unit of a joint-stock company,   (d) an insurance company, a banking company or a bank,   (e) a broker’s office   (f) a stock exchange,   (g) a club, a hotel or a restaurant or an eating house, 

 (h) a cinema or theatre,   (i) such other establishment or class thereof as the Government may, by notification in the 

official Gazette, declare to be a commercial establishment for the purpose of this Act; 

19

(xlii) ‘rule’ means rule made under this Act; 

(xliii) ‘illegal strike’  means a strike declared, commenced or continued otherwise than in 

accordance with the provisions of chapter XIV; 

(xliv) ‘illegal lock-out’ means a lock-out’ means a lock-out declared, commenced or continued 

otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of chapter XIV; 

(xlv) ‘wages’ means all remuneration, expressed in terms of money or  capable of being so 

expressed, which would, if the terms of employment, expressed or implied, were fulfilled, be 

payable to a worker in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment, and 

includes any other additional remuneration of the nature aforesaid which would be so payable, but 

does not include- 

 (a) the value of any house accommodation, supply of light, water medical attendance or 

other amenity or of any service excluded by general or special order of the government, 

 (b) any contribution paid by the employer to any pension fund provident fund, 

 (c) any traveling allowance on the value of any traveling concession, 

 (d) any sum paid to the worker to defray special expenses entitled on him by the nature of 

his employment; 

(xlvi) ‘arbitrator’ means a person appointed as such under chapter XIV; 

(xlvii) ‘chief inspector’ Deputy chief inspector’ ‘Assistant chief inspector’ and ‘inspector’ shall 

respectively mean persons so appointed under chapter xx 

(xlviii) ‘Director of Labour’ Additional director of labour’ Joint Director of Labour’ Deputy 

Director of Labour’ and Assistant Director of Labour’ shall mean persons so appointed under 

chapter XX 

(xlix) ‘employer’ in relation to an establishment,means any person who employs workers therein 

and includes- 

 (a) a heir, successor, assign, guardian or legal representative, as the case may be, or such 

person; 

 (b) any manager or person responsible for the management and control of the establishment. 

 (c) in relation to an establishment run by or under the authority of the Government, the 

authority appointed in this behalf or where on authority is so appointed,the head of the Ministry or 

Division concerned , 

 (d) in relation to an establishment run by or on behalf of a local authority ,the officer 

appointed in this behalf or ,where no officer is so appointed ,thechief executive officer of that 

authority, 

 (e) in relation to any other establishment ,the owner of such establishment any director, 

manager ,secretary , agent or other officer or person concerned with the management of the affairs 

therefore ,and 

 (f) in relation to an establishment under the occupation of any person other than the owner 

,the person in occupation of that establishment or in ultimate control over the affairs of the 

20

establishment and the manager orother person concerned with the management of the affairs 

therefore 

(L) ‘machinery’ includes prime movers, transmission machinery and other appliance whereby 

power is generated, transformed, transmitted or applied; 

(Li) ‘vehicle’ means any mechanically propelled vehicle, used or capable of being used for the 

purpose of road transport and includesa trolley vehicle and a trailer; 

(Lii) ‘collective bargaining agent’, in relation to an establishment or group of establishments, means 

the trade union of workers or federation of trade group of establishments in the matter of collective 

bargaining; 

(Liii) ‘relay’ means, where work of the same kindsis carried out by two ormore sets of workers 

working during different periods of the day, each of such sets; 

(Liv) ‘registered medical practitioner’ means any person registered as such under the medical and 

dental council Act, 1980 (XVI of 1980) 

(Lv) ‘registered trade union’ means a trade union registered under chapter XIII; 

(Lvi) ‘award’ means the determination by an arbitrator, or a Labour court, or the Tribunal of any 

industrial dispute or any matter relating there to and includes an interim award; an interim award; 

(Lvii) ‘lick-out’ means the closing of a place ofemployment or part of such place, or the 

suspension, wholly or partly, of work by an employer, or refusal, absolute or conditional, by an 

employer to continue to employ any number of workers employed byhim, where such closing, 

suspension or refusal occurs in connection with the industrial dispute or is intended for the purpose 

of compelling workers employed the industrial dispute or is intended for the purpose of compelling 

workers employed to accept certain terms and conditions of or affecting employment; 

(Lviii) ‘lay-off) means the failure, refusal or inability ofan employer on account ofshortage of coal, 

power or raw material or the accumulation of stock or the break-down of machinery to give 

employment to a worker; 

(Lix) ‘power’ means electrical energy and any other form of energy which is mechanically 

transmitted and is not generated by human or animal agency; 

(Lx) ‘industry’ means any business,trade, manufacture, calling, service, employment or occupation; 

(Lxi) ‘industrial establishment’ means any workshop or other establishment in which articles are 

produced, adapted or manufactured or where the work of making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, 

finishing or packing or otherwise treating any article or substance, with a view to their use, 

transport, sale, delivery or disposal, is carried on or such other class of establishments which the 

Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an industrial establishment of 

the purpose of this Act,and includes any- 

(a) road transport service or railway transport service, 

(b) river transport service, 

21

(c) airlines, 

(d) dock, wharf or jetty, 

(e) mine, quarry, gas-field or oil –field, 

(f) plantation, 

(g) factory, 

(h) newspaper establishment; 

(i) contractor’s or sub-contractor’s establishment for the purpose of construction, reconstruction, 

repair, alteration or demolition of any building, road, tunnel, drain, canal or bridge or ship-breaking 

or rebuilding or loading orunloading of cargo into vessel or carrying thereof; 

(Lxii) ‘industrial dispute’ means any dispute ordifference between employers and employers or 

between employers and workers or between workers and workers which is connected with the 

employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of work of any 

person; 

(Lxiii) ‘child’ means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age; 

(Lxiv) ‘Labour court’ means a labour court established under this Act; 

(Lxv) ‘worker’ means any person including an apprentice employed in any establishment or 

industry, either directlyor through a contractor, 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 capacity; 

(Lxvi) ‘week’ means a period of seven days beginning at 6.00 pm on Friday or such other night as 

may be fixed by the government in relation to an establishment in any area. 

(Lxvii) ‘total disablement’ means such disablement,whether of a temporary or permanent nature, as 

incapacitates a worker for all workwhich he was capable of performing at the time of the accident 

resulting in such disablement; 

Provided that permanent total disablement shall be deemed to result from the permanent total loss of 

the sight of both eyes or from any combination of injuries specified in the First Schedule where the 

aggregate percentage of the loss of earning capacity as specified in that schedule against those 

injuries, amounts to one hundred percent; 

(Lxviii) ‘road transport service’ means a service carrying passengers or goods by road in vehicles 

for hire or reward; 

(Lxix) ‘newspaper’ means any printed periodicalwork containing public news or comments on 

public news and includes such other class of printed periodical work as the Government may, by 

notification in the official Gazette, declare to be newspaper; 

(Lxx) ‘ newspaper press worker’ means a person who is employed on a whole-time basis in any 

newspaper establishment for doing any printing work; 

(Lxxi) ‘Newspaper establishment’ means an establishment for the printing, production or 

publication of any newspaper or for conducting any news agency ornews or feature syndicate; 

(Lxxii) ‘newspaper worker’ means a working journalist, an administrative worker or a newspaper 

press worker; 

22

(Lxxiii) ‘Conciliator’ means a person appointed as such under chapter XIV; 

(Lxxvi) ‘Conciliation proceedings’ means any proceedingsbefore a conciliator’ 

(Lxxv) ‘serious bodily injury’ means any injury which involves, or in all probability will involve, 

the permanent loss of the use of, or permanent injury to any limb, orthe permanent loss of or injury 

of the sight or hearing, or the fracture of any limb or the enforced absence of the injured person 

from work for a period exceeding twenty days; 

(Lxxvi) ‘decision’ in relation to a Labour court, means any decision or order of that court, other 

than an award, finally disposing of a case; 

(Lxxvii) ‘scheme’ means scheme made under this Act;