Tax & Employment
Employment
Workforce structuring, Labour Act compliance, expatriate employment and the worker-versus-management distinction that decides much of it.
The Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 and the Labour Rules 2015 apply to 'workers' — a defined category that excludes those employed in an administrative or managerial capacity. Where an employee falls on that line determines service benefits, termination procedure, working hours and dispute forum, and misclassification is one of the most common and expensive employment errors made by foreign employers here.
We advise on contracts and handbooks, restructuring and redundancy, expatriate work permits and visas, and we act in labour disputes and before the Labour Courts.
How we help
- Employment contracts, handbooks and policy manuals
- Worker versus management classification analysis
- Termination, retrenchment and redundancy procedure
- Expatriate work permits, visas and secondment structures
- Service benefits, provident fund, gratuity and profit participation
- Trade union, collective bargaining and industrial relations
- Labour Court proceedings and workplace investigations
Representative matters
- Drafted employee guidelines and handbooks for multinational employers in Bangladesh.
Recent changes in the law
Invest Bangladesh replaces BIDA, BEZA and the PPP Authority
The Invest Bangladesh Act 2026 came into force by gazette notification, creating a single investment authority under the Prime Minister's Office. It takes over the functions, contracts and staff of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority and the PPP Authority, and repeals their parent Acts and the One Stop Service Act 2018. BEPZA and the Hi-Tech Park Authority remain separate. Registration, work permits and the one-stop portal continue under the new name.
Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2026
Parliament passed amendments to the Labour Act 2006, following an ordinance of November 2025. Reported changes include a definition of “worker” that turns on actual duties rather than job title, new thresholds for trade union registration, longer maternity leave and a mandatory workplace complaint committee. Employers should check contracts, handbooks and classification of staff against the amended Act.
Our writing on this
- Worker or management? The classification that drives Bangladeshi employment law
The Bangladesh Labour Act protects 'workers' — a defined category that excludes administrative and managerial employees. Foreign employers get this line wrong more often than any other point of local employment law.