The aim of rehabilitation and return to work strategy is to have a guideline and system in place to assist in coordination and communication of all necessary measures to eliminate damage to the health and wellbeing of the workers caused by a work-related accident or an occupational disease, to prevent long-term disability or mitigate the aggravation; thus, achieving a timely and lasting occupational and social reintegration and facilitate a self-determined lifestyle.

 

In Bangladesh, the protection of the textile workers against the risk of a workplace accident or an occupational disease is insufficient thus far. There are individual statutory provisions and first approaches regarding prevention, rehabilitation and compensation. Employers are subject to liability according to civil law and the existing basic approaches are highly fragmented, and inefficient and their implementation is not sufficiently monitored. To better assess the rehabilitation and return to work landscape in Bangladesh, BBDN and BEF under the EIPS project have conducted several tripartite key stakeholder consultations to compile and finalize the structure of a Rehabilitation strategy taking into account the national legal framework, existing rehabilitation and disability assessment proposals compiled by International Labour Organisation (ILO) supported by the Government ministries (MOLE), employers (BEF), worker’s groups, medical and rehabilitation experts and renowned academics. 

 

Return to Work and Rehabilitation is on one hand a social and human rights issue and on the other, it is linked to policies and occupational health matters that have economic implications. i.e. the duty-free GSP status that Bangladesh enjoys with the EU will be impacted if we are not able to address the labour rights issues by 2027.