The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Gap Inc. recently launched a joint initiative in Dhaka to strengthen social dialogue and industrial relations in Bangladesh’s garment sector. The three-year initiative, the ILO Bangladesh Social Dialogue Project, will be implemented by the ILO in all factories that Gap Inc. sources from in Bangladesh.
The initiative will help build the capacity of factory management, compliance staff, union members and workplace committee members through training sessions on a range of topics, including freedom of association, collective bargaining, international labour standards, human resource management, communications and negotiation techniques, and raise the understanding of the Bangladesh Labour Act.
ILO’s flagship Better Work Bangladesh (BWB) Programme, jointly with the ILO’s Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations project will implement activities under the initiative. ILO and Gap have been working together since 2001 through the Better Work programme, which currently operates in eight countries. Gap Inc. partnered with the ILO to establish the Better Work Academy, a global project which supports companies to improve compliance in their supply chains, according to an ILO report.
