UNB, Dhaka
Labour and Employment Minister Engr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday said the government started work to create a database of the unemployed members of every family to give job to one member of each family as per the pre-election pledge of the government.
“We’ve already started to create a database of unemployed members of every family… we plan to make them skilled through various training programmes,” he told reporters after attending seminar at the BIAM auditorium in the city.
International Labour Organization (ILO), Dhaka area office and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) jointly organized the daylong seminar on ‘Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining’ with BILS acting chairman Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan in the chair.
Talking to the journalists, Engr Khandaker Mosharraf, also Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister, however, stressed the need for creating more skilled manpower to earn more foreign exchange from Bangladeshi expatriate workers.
The government, he said, is going to introduce more training programmes in different sectors like nursing to increase job opportunities abroad.
Asked about the recent loss of job by a lot of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, Engr Khandaker Mosharraf said the Bangladeshi workers lost their jobs due to global economic crisis. “This was not for any fault of the Bangladesh government.”
He, however, assured that the government would take appropriate steps for those who lost their jobs. If necessary, the workers would be given financial support, he said.
Addressing the seminar, the Labour and Employment Minister said although the Bangladesh Labour Act-2006 provides for freedom of association, there are still some shortcomings and weaknesses in the Act. The government will review these in the future.
He said the present government had already taken an initiative to proceed with the ratification of the remaining ILO conventions including the Minimum Age Convention.
Bangladesh joined ILO in 1972 as a member state and ratified 33 ILO conventions of which seven are fundamental conventions. Currently Bangladesh is a member of the ILO governing body.
The Labour Minister said the government is truly committed to establishing democracy, freedom and rule of law in each and every aspects of the national life.
“On one hand, the government would like to ensure the rights and welfare of the workers and on the other hand, the present government is committed to employment creation as a matter of priority.”
He said the prevalence of so many trade union federations do not serve the interest of the workers. Rather, the unified voice by the consolidated trade union movement would help not only the workers, but also the economy.
BILS secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan said the last caretaker government brought some amendments in the labour laws, which are against the interest of labours.
Demanding scrapping of those amendments, he said the government
should amend the labour laws according to the ILO conventions and
implement those to the benefit of the labours
Labour and Employment secretary Mahfuzul Haque, Bangladesh Employers Federation president Kamran T. Rahman and Jatiya Sramik League general secretary Roy Ramesh Chandra also spoke at the seminar.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
