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Ministry of Labour, employers and

trade unions set priority action

areas for Bangladesh until 2020

With the International Labor Organization (ILO), the through stakeholder consultations involving a wide
government of Bangladesh, employers and workers range of constituents and other interested parties.
organization will be working together towards These challenges include high unemployment rate
creation of green jobs and promotion of social among youth and especially among those with
dialogue amongst the priorities. higher levels of education; high and stagnating
income inequality; low productivity in some sectors;
DWCPs two main objectives include promotion of slow improvement in the Occupational Safety and
Decent Work as a key component of national Health situation and working conditions; as well as
development strategies along with organizing ILO inadequate opportunity for social dialogue in
knowledge, instruments, advocacy and cooperation Bangladesh.
at the service of government, employers and
workers. To mitigate these challenges, the DWCP for
Bangladesh focuses on four key areas which
Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs) are the include skills development and green growth;
main vehicles for delivering ILO’s support to promotion of safe and clean working environments;
countries. Each DWCP is organized around a limited social dialogue between government, employers
number of priorities and outcomes. The priorities for and workers; and social protection for all workers
Bangladesh have been chosen on the basis of and vulnerable groups including protection against
participatory assessment of current challenges climate change.

Levi Strauss & Co. sets new sustainability

targets to reduce global temperature

Levi Strauss & Co. stresses on reducing the climatic investing in renewable energy and energy efficient SPGPrints wins patent case
impact of carbon emissions in their operating upgrades.
facilities and throughout their global supply chain. • 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas
They have set new aggressive targets to ensure that emissions in the supply chain by expanding the IFC against MS/Dover in Dutch court
Levi Strauss & Co. complies with keeping the global PaCT in accordance with suppliers. The
temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees International Finance Corporation’s Partnership
Celsius that is consistent with the Paris agreement (IFC) for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) is a public private SPGPrints, a leading equipment and consumables supplier for printing in the textile and graphics industry,
as well as set standard for the apparel industry for partnership that provides suppliers with technical has successfully argued before the Dutch court in The Hague that the MS/Dover patent EP2643159 for
reducing carbon emissions. expertise and access to low cost financing to single pass digital textile printing is not inventive. The Court therefore invalidated the patent for the
support sustainable energy and water investments. Netherlands. MS/Dover decided not to appeal the decision.
Targets set include:
• Investing to source 100 percent renewable electricity. This initiative will reduce the carbon footprint, costs Mr. Joustra, CEO of SPGPrints, comments: “As the inventors of rotary screen printing and a first mover in
• 90 percent reduction in GHG, greenhouse gas of suppliers as well as catalyze action within the digital textile printing SPGPrints instantly recognised that the MS/Dover patent was not inventive. We are
emissions in all owned and operated facilities by apparel industry and across other industries. happy that this has now been confirmed by an experienced patent court.”

July/August 2018 July/August 2018