Anti Forced Labor Policy
This
policy is applicable for all the factory level workers of Auto Group as well as
all staff and employees at every level. To maintain a pleasant and harmonious
working environment and to ensure that, nobody is working in the company who
doesn’t wish to and so that no one is being forced to render their service
against their free will.
That
the company will be run only on the basis of voluntary labor as required by ILO
Convention and all buyers and the law of Bangladesh.
Policy:
- The company will not force anyone to continue working for the company under any kind of obligation beyond their will; however will require an employee to provide mutually agreed notice period and leave only after the completion of that, in case they would like to discontinue working for the company. Failure to do this can be penalized financially.
- The company can obligate a person to stay for a certain mutually agreed period of time if the company invests a special amount of funds on the person’s development through imparting of some special training (beyond on the job training, mainly refers to training imparted at from other location through the hiring of some professional trainer or payment of certain fees) to the person. Failure by a staff to stay can be penalized in the form of taking that as compensation the amount invested on the training.
- That the company will not force or influence an employee to not take leaves that they are entitled to
- That the company will not force its employees to work on weekends, beyond normal work times or, on the government holidays which the company has declared that it will follow. At times when any work exigency / contingency would require someone to work at any of this time, it will only be allowed if the individual is willing to render that service and on the condition that individual will be paid something extra; for the workers, it would be Over Time (OT), for the staff, it would be additional allowances. However, if the individual is unwilling to render the service, the company cannot require that person to work even if the company is willing to pay additional compensation for the extra work.
- That the company will not force its employees to continue working beyond their willingness by withholding of any financial benefits that they are entitled to, beyond the time within which they are supposed to get it.
- That the company will compensate extra work for the workers adequately as per the law
- That the company will not force people who are unwell to continue working.
- That the company will not force pregnant women to work beyond the date that they are entitled for being granted maternity leave.
- That the garments workers will not be required to bring any equipment or tool which would be required by them to do their work
- No mid management or supervisor level parson can use any kind of intimidation technique to try and force workers to work at times they are not willing to do.
Regulations & Procedures:
a)
All staff
and employee will be required to provide a notice period before they leave, so
that the company is able to find a replacement or prepare for that situation.
The notice period will not exceed 3 months for senior management persons
holding the rank of GM and above; not exceeding 2 months for assistant managers
up to DGM; and up to 1 month for all trainees, entry level position holders and
up to senior executive level. For workers, as per the labor law, they are
required to provide 2 months’ notice time.
b)
If the
company compels someone wanting to leave the company’s service, to serve out
this notice period as specified above, and which the employee has agreed to by
signing the appointment letter, then such compulsive measures cannot be called
“forced labor”.
c)
The company
can, if it chooses to, to deduct the gross salary of the number of work days by
which the notice period may be shortened, provided the clause was included in
the appointment letter and agreed to by the employee.
d)
The company
can ask the employee to sign a bond to ensure service for a certain length of
time only if the company provides any special training to the employee at some
training institute or where the training was imparted by any external party
where additional cost was incurred. The training cost would be spread across
the period of the bond, and if the employee chooses to leave the company in the
meantime, then he/she would have to repay the company, that remaining part of
the cost of the training. This can also be exercised if the company sends
someone to some foreign country for some assignment or training on company
expense.
e)
The company
cannot force its employees to not take the leaves that they are entitled to (as
elaborated in Leave Policy Section). They can ask the employee to not take the
leave and to receive a financial benefit equivalent to that day’s basic salary
instead. If however, the employee chooses to take the leave, then the company
has to allow the employee to do so. However, if the company feels that the
employee has not performed his/her duties adequately during his/her duty time,
the company can penalize the employee by other means elaborated in performance
policy.
f)
The company
cannot force the employees to work on the weekends unless it is as a
compensation for a day that the company had been forced to remain closed, such
as, for a political disturbance. The workers would not be entitled to receive
any overtime benefits for such compensatory work. This also includes those
additional days that the company remains closed before and after the government
announced Eid holidays.
g)
The company
cannot force its employees to forgo any government holiday that the company has
declared as being ones that it will allow, in the annual calendar. If any
employee is made to work on any such day, then if he/she is a staff, he/she
would have to be paid a certain allowance which would be determined according
to their designation for each day of declared government holiday forsaken. For
workers, they would have to be paid their overtime at the rate prescribed by
the prevailing law of the land. For workers, they are to be provided an extra
day of holiday in addition to overtime if they are made to forsake a government
holiday, declared as being a holiday to be allowed in the policy of the
company.
h)
The company
cannot force any of its employees, worker or staff, to come to office or the
factory on a day of Hartal or widespread political street violence, unless the
employee’s residence is within close proximity of the workplace. The company
cannot force any female office staff to come to work on such a day. However, if
there is an office or factory of the company close to that person’s residence,
then the person would be required to go and attend work at the nearest branch
or factory of the company.
i)
The company
may ask its staff and office employees to work beyond standard work hours
depending on workload, on special requirement without paying any overtime or
any benefit. However, this cannot happen on more than 50% of the work days of
the month.
j)
The company
cannot force its workers in the factory to work overtime unless they are
willing to do so. The company cannot use the threat of financial penalties or
use threat of
job
loss or any kind of harassment to extract obedience and agreement. The company
needs to obtain signatures from workers indicating that they accept to do the
overtime.
k)
The company
cannot force a pregnant woman to work beyond the date which marks the 2 month
waiting time from the expected date of delivery
l)
The company
cannot force an employee who is feeling unwell to continue working on that day.
However the employee will also require a certificate from the company doctor
before leaving for that day, or will require bringing a medical certificate to
prove ailment the following day or when he/she returns. If the employee leaves
at such a time that more than 33% of the normal working hours are not utilized,
then his/her leave quota may be reduced by that proportion of a day of leave.
Procedure for ensuring no forced lobor on a daily basis for worker –
Workers
are to be provided with the signup sheet where they give their names and
signatures to show that they are accepting to provide the overtime service.
This will be also applicable for government holidays and any exceptional
weekend work. Admin and HR Department of factory will be responsible for
collecting signature and necessary check and verification. In case of any
incident of forced labor worker/staff can inform HR/Welfare Department to
escalade the matter to the top management.
For
the staff, chart of allowance will be followed based on the designation and HR
will use that.
Responsible Parties:
All department heads and specially the production management are responsible for abiding by these policies and implementing it in the production area.Director HR, and the HR, Compliance and Welfare Departments will be responsible for checking and ensuring that the rules are being followed properly. They are also responsible for conducting awareness programs about these policies to all people concerned. Admin is responsible for collecting workers’ signature on the overtime paper. HR & Welfare Departments have to ensure that, workers’ work hour time is properly recorded and compensated.Exceptions:
The
rules above are in conformity with the law of the land. Only such exceptions
which do not contradict the law of the land may be permitted by the signatories
below, based on a mail with justification explained by the person wanting to
make the exception.
Feedback & Control:
Internal
compliance department will make sure that HR, Administration and Welfare
Departments are performing their responsibilities related to this policy.
The
Responsible Parties as mentioned below will remain alert and collect
information through formal and informal channels of any and all incidents that
may be, in breach of these regulations and will report them to the signatories.
Any
individual if feels that he/she is being subjective to forced labor can lodge a
complaint to the Director of that factory, or to the Director of HR, Welfare
and Compliance. The person can also report the incident at anonymous letter at
the complaint box.
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