The Cabinet Monday approved the draft of the `Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2013’, which aims at protecting the interest and rights of the workers and ensuring their safety.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the amendments sought in the bill are designed to protect the interest of the workers.
The amended bill will also help increase productivity as it has a relation with the welfare of the workers, he said.
The proposed law has brought outsourcing under registration to improve management of companies and prevent exploitation of the workers, he added.
The cabinet secretary said that in the proposed law, the group insurance of the workers has been made mandatory for companies with minimum 100 workers.
He said the proposed amendment bill provides that in case of the death of a worker the employer will realize the insurance claim from the insurance company and handover the money to the dependent of that worker directly.
In case of voluntary retirement or termination with minimum 12 years of service, a worker will be entitled to get one month’s basic salary for each year of service. But s/he would get one and half month’s basic salary for each year in case of more than 12 years of service.
There is a provision in the bill to keep consistency between the structural design and outlay of a factory while Welfare Fund will have to be constituted for the workers of the export-oriented companies.
The cabinet also approved in principle the draft of the `Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Bill, 2013’ to replace the 1978 ordinance in this regard.
The ordinance of 1978 has been automatically scrapped following the annulment of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
The cabinet secretary said the new law has been proposed to maintain the continuity of the previous ordinance to run the activities of the BCSIR.
The cabinet was also informed about the second meeting of the Bangladesh-Vietnam joint Economic, Trade, Cultural, Scientific and Technical Commission held in Dhaka on April 6-7.
Besides, the meeting was also informed of the participation of Bangladesh delegation led by the Water Resources Minister in the Multi Stakeholder Dialogue on Water in the post 2015 Agenda, the International Celebration of World Water Day 2013 on water Cooperation and the high level meeting on the `Thematic Consultation on Water’ held in the Netherlands on March 21-22.
Cabinet Members, Advisers to the Prime Minister and State Ministers concerned attended the meeting while secretaries concerned were present.
Source: UNB Connect
