Globalization and Changing Landscape of Industrial Relations in Bangladesh

Globalization deepened by growing trade liberalization, capital mobility, and foreign investment, coupled with the growth of global production networks, has a profound impact on labor rights and transformed industrial relations in a way that contributed to precarious working conditions, informality and casualization of employment relations in many developing countries, including Bangladesh. This chapter examines diverse influences of globalization on industrial relations in Bangladesh. The growing importance of the global supply chain with attendant diversification of production sources across the world has created the scope of labor rights violations, as multinational enterprises or global brands may be involved in the risk of modern slavery through their operations. This chapter highlights human rights due diligence laws that have emerged as a new labor governance mechanism to prevent modern slavery in the global supply chain. This chapter also explores the dynamics of the labor market in Bangladesh, which is characterized as a large-scale informality, the challenges of the formalization of informal sectors, the emergence of the gig economy, impact of the corona-virus pandemic on labor rights, and the role of transnational governance mechanism in Bangladesh.