Technical note

Bangladesh: comparison between employment injury provisions in the Labour Act and standard provisions of an employment injury insurance scheme

Schemes providing compensation to workers suffering employment injuries or to the dependants of deceased workers are the oldest and the most widespread social insurance measures in the world. They can be roughly classified into two main categories: (1) schemes based on the responsibility of the employer (employers’ liability scheme) to directly provide compensation to their workers or their workers’ dependants, or to purchase private insurance coverage which will provide compensation; and (2) employment injury insurance schemes (EII) based on the collective responsibility of employers to support a social insurance programme offering compensation to all covered workers.

This document analyses the current Labour Act of Bangladesh from the viewpoint of the design of a standard employment injury insurance scheme in line with the ILO social security standards dealing with employment injury benefits, namely the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 121). It is intended that this document may serve as a reference for furthering consultations and discussions in Bangladesh for an introduction of a mechanism to provide timely and adequate compensation to victims of employment injuries and occupational diseases.