Labour and employment secretary Mikail Shipar on Sunday said the government had no plan yet to bring export processing zones under the labour law allowing them to engage in trade unionism.
‘The issue of EPZ isn’t mentioned there (labour law). The government has no plan yet to bring EPZs under the labour law. There’s an embargo till 2013,’ he told reporters at a press conference at the foreign ministry.
On formulation of rules and regulation to effectively implement the labour law, Mikail Shipar said the government had taken necessary steps, and two committees — national and another subcommittee — will soon be formed in this regard.
Responding to a question, the labour secretary said there was a proposal to convert labour department into labour directorate with an increased workforce. ‘The proposal is now at the public administration ministry.’
He hoped that they would get a baseline regarding the labour directorate within the next couple of months. ‘There are 314 posts in the labour department. It’ll be raised to 2,200 when it will turn into labour directorate.’
On appointment of labour inspectors, the labour secretary said they would get at least 60 inspectors within the next one or two months, and the remaining 140 inspectors would be appointed gradually.
Mikail Shipar also said better work programme would be implemented here. ‘We’ve been engaged with ILO since the beginning. They want to see the implementation of the labour law.’The foreign ministry arranged the press conference to brief the media on recent issues, including the GSP suspension.
-With New Age input
