DHAKA - Thirty officials from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and Ministry of Industrieshave been trained by ILO on techniques and practices of resolving labour disputes.

Two three-day parallel training programmes on “Interest Based Negotiations and Joint Problem Solving” (IBN) were held from 13 to 15 December 2014 in Dhaka.

The sessions were organized by the ILO’s “Promoting Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in Bangladesh” (FPRW) project funded by the U. S. Department of Labor.The training was organized in collaboration with the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

Participants included 20 Officials from the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations Institutes (IRI), 5 from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), and 5 from the Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM). In addition, 12 master trainers on workplace cooperation whose capacity has been built by ILO also took part.

The training sessions aimed to give participants a basic grounding in the concepts and practices of interest based negotiations in labour dispute resolutions.

The two-year FPRW Project, set to end in February 2015, aims to streamline national labour law in line with the International Labour Standards (ILS), build capacities of workers’ organizations and employers’ organizations, and promote effective labour-management relations in the RMG sector. It has raised the awareness of more than 2,500 workers representatives and trade union organizers on workers’ rights and responsibilities and the functions of trade unions. It has furthermore trained 228 mid-level managers and 130 workers representatives from the RMG sector (representing 83 enterprises) on workplace cooperation issues.