The nine-member committee will hold talks with the officials of the US Embassy in Dhaka, American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisation (AFL-CIO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on trade unions.

"We will try to convince the international pressure groups of a possible negative impact on the foreign investment if trade union activity is allowed in the EPZs," a committee member, seeking anonymity, told The Daily Star.

Headed by State Minister for Labour and Employment Aman Ullah Aman, the recently formed committee comprises secretaries of the ministries of foreign affairs, labour and employment, industries, commerce, and law, justice and parliamentary affairs.

Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Brigadier General (rtd) Mofizur Rahman, BEPZA (Member) Nazrul Islam and a representative from the Prime Minister's Office are also included in the body.

On January 31, 2001, the Awami League government decided to lift the embargo on labour unions in the EPZs amidst pressure from the US government and the AFL-CIO.

Later, the labour and employment ministry through a gazette notification declared that labour rights would be established in the EPZs from January 1, 2004.

Sources in the BEPZA said labour rights have been protected in the EPZs through the Workers Welfare Committee (WWC) and Labour Relations Tribunal (LRT).

Every factory in the EPZs has a 10-member WWC comprising equal number of representatives from owners and workers. The workers can raise their problems, if any, at the WWC meeting to find out solutions.

Besides, the BEPZA has also formed LRT in every EPZ, headed by a retired judge, to settle unresolved issues, referred by WWC.

The committee members will apprise the international pressure groups of the measures already taken for the welfare of EPZ labourers," a high official in the BEPZA said.

Currently, six EPZs in Dhaka, Chittagong, Comilla, Ishwardi, Mongla and Nilphamari have $550.73 million in investment from 23 countries.

Goods worth $1.2 billion were exported from the EPZs in FY02, which was 18 per cent of the country's total exports during the period. Presently, 123,927 workers, 31 per cent of them females, are employed there.

The first EPZ was set up in Chittagong in 1983 and the following year, trade unions started functioning there. But their activities raised eyebrows of the foreign investors and in 1986, the government banned unionism at EPZs.