BILS was founded in 1995. In April 2006, BILS initiated meetings between trade unions that resulted in a ten-point charter of demands for the improvement of garment workers' labour conditions, especially a raise of the minimum wage. This charter led to the creation of the
Minimum Wages Board and the 7-grade minimum wage structure for garment workers still in use today. Also in 2006, BILS together with trade unions, human rights organisations and NGOs formed the Domestic Workers' Rights Network in order to improve the working conditions of domestic workers in Bangladesh. In 2010, the alliance drafted a policy proposal for the protection of domestic workers that was adopted by Bangladesh's government in 2015. Following the
2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse, BILS joined the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee that led the distribution of payments to the families of those killed and injured by the disaster. In 2017, BILS conducted a study that found Bangladesh factories did not follow
ILO standards for minimum work hours and workplace safety. The survey found that instead of eight hours a day, workers in Bangladesh on average work 12 hours a day. Nearly half of the surveyed transport workers worked for more than 15 hours a day. In that year, the institute together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation also conducted a three-month training course on labour policy and workers' rights for 16 young trade union leaders. In 2018, BILS called for the abolishment of the regulation that 20 percent of a factory's workers were needed to form a union. In the same year, the institute conducted a study that documented lacking compliance with labour laws in Bangladesh's informal sector. The institute, together with
Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad and the
National Workers Federation, in that year also published 16 demands to improve the working conditions of rickshaw pullers. During the economic crisis caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic, BILS called for the establishment of a national database of unemployed workers to help with their protection. ==References==