Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq today said the rights of the labourers in the country is going to be better day by day during the tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina doesn’t think about the labour rights based on what it might get from another country. The aim of her government is that the workers would enjoy better rights in future than they are enjoying now,” he said.
The law minister said while talking to newsmen after a meeting with a trade delegation of the United States at his office this noon.
Replying a question on the matter of his discussion with the US delegation, Anisul said the visitors raised the issue of labour rights and trade union threshold in labour sector.
Huq further said the threshold of minimum workers for formation of a trade union in a factory was 30 percent in 2016. But, decision was taken to bring the trade union threshold down to 20 percent after our meeting with the ILO in 2017.
At that time, we told to bring it down further, but gradually,” he said adding that an amendment is under process to slash the threshold to 15 percent for all factories.
The law minister hoped that the labour amendment bill will be passed by the end of next budget session.
“The US delegation mainly asked about the labour amendment bill and progress in this regard. They expressed satisfaction after learning about labour act and labour rights here,” the law minister said.
Led by Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) South and Central Asia assistant Brendan Lynch, the other member of the five-member delegation were director for USTR South and Central Asia Emily Ashby, USTR director for labour affairs Jennifer Oetken, US embassy economic unit chief Joseph Giblin and US embassy labour attaché Leena Khan.
Law and Justice Division Secretary Golam Sarwar and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division Secretary Hafiz Ahmed Chowdhury were present.
