SRO No. 295-Law/2022, on “The EPZ Labor Rule 2022”, dated 4 October 2022

The government introduced a new rule based on section 203 of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Labor Act 2019, named EPZ Labor rule 2022,  where some important rules and regulations for zone areas has been presented.

The new rule introduced a new provision that says, an employee will be automatically permanent if an employer does not give a confirmation letter after expires of 6 months.

In case of taking leave, an employee must apply for leave before 3-7 days, also he/she needs to include the address where he/she will be staying during  the certain leave period. If an employee wants to extend his/her leave, in that case, he/she must send a letter to the employer before the expiration of his previous leave. Employers are required to send their decision the same way as the employees did.

For retrenchment, the employer needs to consider the join date of the employee. For the employees who joined earlier, employer needs to consider them first. The rule also specified the calculation method of earned leave of the Zone’s employees.  Besides that, there are some clear guidelines for maternity benefits, leave, punishment for conviction, the safety of the worker, risk management and primary medical service, etc.