Include trade unions to address climate change damages: Speakers

The government should immediately include the trade unions in the policy-making and policy implementation to deal with climate change hazards to ensure sustainable development, suggested speakers at a programme on Sunday.

Governments and employers have already begun to take steps to address the effects of climate change, yet no effective steps have been taken to include workers and their legislative representative trade unions in the process, they said.

The speakers came up with the opinion at the opening ceremony of an event titled "Green Social Dialogue of Trade Unions in the Garment Industry of Bangladesh" organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) in cooperation with German-based organisation GIZ, in a hotel in the capital.

The main objective of the programme was to empower women and youth trade union workers in the Gazipur-Tongi area. This aimed to raise awareness over the environmental and social standards of garment workers beyond the workplaces so that they can play a leading role in raising awareness about climate change in the local community.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Labour and Employment Md Mujibul Haque was present as the chief guest at the event chaired by BILS Vice Chairman Md Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan.

According to latest data, the number of workers in the labour supply chain will decrease by 16 per cent, if the temperature in Bangladesh rises by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next decade. More research-based data should be generated for the victims and presented immediately at the policy-making level.