Draft Labour Rules
Mobile operators lobby government
Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh has placed 15-point proposals for bringing about changes to the proposed Bangladesh Labour Rules drafted by the labour ministry. The association submitted the proposals to the ministry on July 8 seeking changes in the definition of worker, tenure for apprenticeship, provision for part-time job and workers participation in company’s profit, and declaration of mobile operators as service sector.
The state minister for labour and employment, Md Mujibul Haque Chunnu, already asked officials concerned to incorporate the association’s proposals in the draft rules, while labour leaders and labour law experts termed the proposals illogical and ill-motivated.
Mujibul told New Age in the past week that he ordered the incorporation of the proposals in the draft rules as the mobile operators had no participation in tripartite meeting.
The labour secretary, Mikail Shipar, however, said that the ministry would discuss the proposals with stakeholders before finalising the rules in September.
Mobile operators proposed that employees engaged in managerial, administrative and supervisory work should not be defined as workers.
They proposed that apprenticeship period would last for three years and the apprentices would only be eligible for monthly or hourly stipends and would not be entitled to other benefits including gratuity, bonus and profit sharing.
The proposals included empowerment of employers to determine the period of jobs of temporary nature for engagement of temporary workers.
According to the proposals, employees, who would not be directly or actively involved in the company for six months in a profit year because of mobility or any other assignment or reason other than maternity, would not be eligible for profit sharing.
The mobile operators proposed that the mobile telecommunications including their customer service centres and call centres be included in the definition of ‘service sectors’ under ‘telephone services’.
The Trade Union Centre general secretary, Wajedul Islam Khan, said that they would not accept such proposals. ‘It will have adverse impact on overall job market,’ said Wajedul threatening to wage protests.
Former labour court bar association president Nesar Ahmed said that most of the proposals were against the spirit of Bangladesh Labour Act 2006. ‘No rules can be framed against the spirit of the parent law.’
A business enterprise cannot be treated as service sector, Nesar said.
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies assistant executive director Sultan Uddin Ahmed said that by such demands, mobile operators expressed their intention to ignore the ILO Convention 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention 1948), ILO Convention 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949) and United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The Bangladesh Employers’ Federation secretary general, Farooq Ahmed, said that the federation was not aware of the proposals.
Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh secretary general, Nurul Kabir, said that they made proposals based on their experiences as a ‘developing service sector.’
-With New Age input
