Bangladesh launches employment injury scheme by using openIMIS
Bangladesh launched a ground-breaking employment injury scheme – the first of its kind – providing income protection for workers in the country’s ready-made garment sector
This pioneering scheme, named EIS Pilot, will ensure that, for a trial period of three years, all workers in the export-oriented ready-made garment sector are for the first time ever eligible for work-place injury and disability compensation payments in accordance with international standards adopted by the ILO Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121). The ready-made garment sector is Bangladesh’s largest manufacturing industry and provides jobs to around four million people.
The pilot is a carefully crafted collaboration between public and private partners: The Ministry of Labour and Employment will administer it through its existing Central Fund and head a tripartite public-private oversight committee composed of its own representatives as well as employers’ associations. This pioneering public-private collaboration is jointly supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, and the project ‘Social Protection for Workers in the Textile and Leather Sector‘, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
The scheme is managed by openIMIS. With the support of the GIZ project and the ILO, openIMIS was customized to the requirements of the pilot. With this customized version of openIMIS, it is possible, among other things, to determine the eligible beneficiaries according to the different inheritance laws and customs.
In the initial phase of the EIS Pilot, openIMIS will be managed by a local software company, but once established, it will be hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and will interoperate with the existing identity card scheme, which is in line with the government’s national digital architecture plans.
For more information visit: Bangladesh launches pioneering employment injury scheme for the garment sector – Healthy DEvelopments (bmz.de)