Originally posted in NewAge BD on 28 September 2025
Experts for recognition of informal sector workers
National wage board, digital database sought
Labour rights experts and labour leaders urged the government to formally recognise the country’s vast informal workforce in the upcoming amendment of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006.
They also sought establishment of a national wage board and digital database to uphold social protection rights for millions of workers currently excluded from formal structures.
According to Labour Force Survey 2024, recently published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the country’s total labour force in 2024 stood at 69.10 million, of which 58.04 million — 84 per cent — are engaged in informal employment.
Despite their major contribution to the national economy, most informal workers remain outside the formal recognition, legal protection and social security schemes.
According to the definition of the 15th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, informal enterprises are private, unincorporated and not legally separate from their owners, with no complete financial accounts.
They are small-scale, often operating outside formal laws and typically have fewer than five paid employees.
Talking to New Age, Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, said that the amendment to the Bangladesh Labour Act should clearly recognise informal workers and protect their rights.
‘Our demands include official recognition for informal workers, formation of a national wage board including them and introduction of a social security scheme,’ he said.
The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 is expected to be amended by November of this year.
Sultan, who was chairman of the Labour Reform Commission, which submitted its recommendations in April this year, said that if the government recognised the informal workers, rest of the issues could be solved.
The BBS data showed that 95.96 per cent of female workers and 78.08 per cent of male workers were employed in the informal sector.
Of the total informal workforce, 13.22 million were based in urban areas, while 44.82 million worked in rural regions.
Informal work was most widespread in agriculture, whose 97 per cent workforce was informal, followed by industry with 89 per cent informal workforce and services with 67 per cent, the BBS data stated.
Recently, a joint study by Karmojibi Nari and FES Bangladesh, covering informal workers in all divisions, found that most were employed in retail and sales, agriculture and livestock, food and beverage services, transport and crafts.
Nearly 69 per cent of these workers were aged between 25 and 44.
Various studies estimate that the informal sector contributes roughly 40-43 per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP and without these jobs, many would face unemployment or underemployment.
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed stated that millions of people worked in professions such as auto-rickshaw driving and fishing, which lacked formal recognition, thereby undermining their rights and dignity.
‘Usually, law enforcement agencies dump the auto-rickshaws and set fire to illegal fishing nets; it should be stopped,’ he added.
Rather, he said, the government should ban import and manufacturing of said equipment.
The workers engaged in the informal sector maintained a similar position over the past few years, with a number of about 59.68 million in 2023, which accounted for 84.07 per cent of the total workforce of 70.98 million.
In 2022, the number of informal workers was 59.79 million, accounting for 84.9 per cent of the total workforce of 70.47 million, according to Labour Force Survey data.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, told New Age that the country needed to introduce a digital national database for all workers along with a unique worker identity card.
‘The database should be dynamic so that the government can use it to deliver social schemes, insurance for workplace accidents and health, and even unemployment allowances,’ he added.
He noted that Bangladesh’s graduation from the least developed country status in November 2026 made the formalisation of workplaces inevitable.
‘Some sectors, such as ready-made garment industry, already have sector-wise databases, but what we need is a comprehensive national database of workers,’ he added.
He suggested that the government could seek technical assistance from the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations and other development partners in this regard.
He said that regarding the national minimum wage and recognition of the informal sector, the government should consider recommendations of the Labour Reform Commission.
Currently, a total of 42 sectors in Bangladesh are under coverage of Minimum Wage Board.
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed stated that a national minimum wage standard, rather than the existing sector-based wage system, would ensure a more balanced society.
‘About 84 per cent of workers and employees in the country’s informal sector were completely unaware of who determined their wages and how their rights would be protected,’ he added.
Labour and employment affairs adviser M Sakhawat Hossain recently stated that the government was working to incorporate the International Labour Organisation’s roadmap, the Labour Reform Commission’s recommendations and suggestions from development and trading partners into the ongoing amendment of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006.
‘The upcoming amendment aims to align national labour standards with international ones,’ he added, saying that the reforms were part of the government’s broader action plan to ensure decent work and improved labour rights protection in line with global commitments.
