Honourable Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina made a declaration in 2013 to establish separate Legal Aid Cell Office aiming to provide legal aid at free of cost for the workers who are deprived of getting access to justice. Although the government enacted the Legal Aid Services Act (LASA) 2000 (last amended in 2013), workers have been continuously victimised by their employers. Female workers are particularly facing discrimination in the workplace, including denial of maternity leave, child care on site, sexual and verbal harassment and termination of job without following due process.

People experienced a shocking disaster of Rana Plaza collapse on 24 April 2013. In the aftermath of the incident, a new concept of providing legal aid for the workers was endorsed by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and thereby National Legal Aid Services Organisation (Hereinafter NLASO) established for the first time a Worker's Legal aid Cell at the premises of Dhaka Labour Court on 2 May 2013 with the technical support from Justice Sector Facility (JSF) project of the United Nations Development Programme (Hereinafter UNDP) and DFID.

The Cell is now fully functional to provide free legal aid services; like (i) providing legal advice, (ii) conducting mediation to settle disputes as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process and to draft grievance petition, (iii) engaging Legal Aid Panel Lawyers and representing cases in the labour courts, (iv) raising awareness about worker's rights in industrial areas, (v) providing capacity development of Panel Lawyers, (vi) running a hotline services for both national and migrant workers in providing information, and (vii) conducting training programs for Trade Union leaders and so on. Workers from all 17 districts of Dhaka division are now enjoying the legal aid services from the Cell. Since its inception, it is reported by NLASO that a total of 6,027 workers accessed the services and thereby an amount of BDT. 2,759,618 was recovered from the employers as compensation to directly provide the victims by the intervention of the Cell.

To expand the legal aid services, NLASO has recently established another Worker's Legal Aid Cell Office at Chittagong Labour Court that is fully operational from 21st of July 2016 while UNDP Bangladesh provided technical support under its Women's Access to Justice Project to establish the Cell as Chittagong is considered to be the commercial capital of Bangladesh having the most number of industries in different sectors like RMG, ship breaking, steel manufacturers, packed foods etc.

To safeguard the interests of thousands of workers employed in those sectors, the Cell will be providing more or less the similar services compare to the services provided by Dhaka Cell Office. The Cell is now under the direct supervision of the Chairman of the Labour Court. A special committee will be formed soon to monitor the daily activities. In addition, NLASO will also monitor the progress.

It is worthy to note that workers from different areas are coming to both Cells to avail legal aid services. However, the two Cells should be equipped with utilising innovative ways; e.g. disseminating SMS, developing and distributing awareness materials like posters and leaflets, broadcasting Public Service Announcement (PSA) through community radios and televisions, and using social media so that target people can reach the Worker's Legal Aid Cell. Two Cells are not adequate to provide the legal aid services to the workers of whole Bangladesh. The government, policy makers, civil society, local and international NGOs, UN specialised agencies like UNDP and ILO, donors like USAID and DFID, and existing Labour Union leaders and other stakeholders should work altogether to establish more Cells in remaining divisions of the country in order to achieve the goals of Worker's Legal Aid Cells.

The writer is working as TIP Program Associate with Relief International, Bangladesh Country Office.