The scheme in context



The Employment Injury Insurance (EIS) is the first scheme of this kind in Bangladesh. For a period of three years, all workers in the export-oriented ready-made garment sector are eligible for workplace injury and disability compensation payments in accordance with international standards adopted by the ILO Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121). This is called the EIS Pilot.

The scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, which administers it through its existing Central Fund, and several multinational companies, which support its financing it. It is governed by a tripartite technical committee representing the Government of Bangladesh, employers and employees. Technical support is provided by the International Labour Organization (ILO), funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, and the project ‘Social Protection for Workers in the Textile and Leather Sector‘, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The ready-made garment sector is Bangladesh’s largest manufacturing industry and provides jobs to around four million people. The aim of the EIS Pilot is to show that improved social protection mechanisms can improve manufacturers’ productivity and international competitiveness, provide financial security to workers and their families in the event of a workplace death or injury which leads to permanent disability and allow international buyers to show the rights of manufacturing workers in global supply chains are respected and implemented. Accordingly, the EIS Pilot for Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector is conceptualised as a transformative approach, leading to the introduction of a permanent statutory EIS in the country.

How the scheme uses openIMIS



The scheme is managed using a customised version of openIMIS to support the core business processes and workflows defined under the Standard Operating Procedures of the EIS Pilot to provide income replacements for the permanently disabled and the dependents of deceased workers. Cases will be registered in openIMIS and pension calculation will be done by the openIMIS VBA tool. A dedicated Special Unit within the Central Fund operates the schemes. 

In the initial phase, openIMIS will be run by a local software company. Once established, it will be hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and rely on the existing identity card scheme, in line with the government’s national digital architecture plans. The aim is to foster interoperability with other relevant digital databases, including with a future workers’ database, thereby effectively improving access to social protection benefits.