Dutch-based confectioner Perfetti Van Melle told workers at its plant in Gazipur that they must withdraw their application for the legal recognition of their union. A large majority of workers at the plan formed the Perfetti Van Melle BD Pvt Ltd Employees’ Union and had applied for registration on 11 November 2018. Union officers’ work schedules were changed, and they were denied access to the plant. Company representatives then began visiting workers in their homes pressuring them to withdraw their union membership and to sign a form stating they were forced to join the union, a common tactic used by employers in South Asia seeking to claim that the union has no real members.
Despite the pressure the union persisted, and was granted legal recognition on 14 January 2019.
