strike in the event of a failure to reach settlement, but places limitations on this right. At least 75 percent of union employees must support a strike action. The government may prohibit a strike deemed to pose a “serious hardship to the community” and may terminate any strike lasting more than 30 days. The law additionally prohibits strikes for the first three years of commercial production if the factory was built with foreign investment or owned by a foreign investor. Few strikes followed the cumbersome legal requirements, however, and strikes or walkouts often occurred spontaneously. Work stoppages, strikes, and workplace actions regarding wage arrears, improper or illegal shutdowns, layoffs, terminations, and discrimination were prevalent in several sectors during the year. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these concerns. The law requires every factory with more than 50 employees to have a participation committee. The law states there is no requirement for a participation committee if a trade union exists in the establishment, but employers often selected or appointed workers to participation committees rather than allowing worker elections to those positions as required by law. Employers also failed to comply with laws and regulations that provided for the effectiveness and independence of participation committees. The law severely restricts the right to organize and bargain collectively for the nearly 490,000 workers in EPZs. EPZ workers may establish worker welfare associations (WWA), but the law does not empower them to independently represent workers in collective bargaining. WWAs dominated by the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) continued to supplant the role of independent unions. Among the 461 operating enterprises in the eight EPZs, WWAs were formed in only 237 enterprises. The law gives BEPZA discretion to ban any strike it views as prejudicial to the public interest within the EPZs. The Ministry of Labour and Employment’s Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) continued to face obstacles to conducting inspections in the EPZs, including the requirement to obtain prior approval from the BEPZA Executive Chairman. The law provides for EPZ labor tribunals, appellate tribunals, and conciliators, but those institutions were not established. Instead, 13 labor courts and one appellate labor court heard EPZ cases. More than 50 percent of WWAs in one zone of the EPZ must approve a federation, and they are Page 51