The Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2018 was passed in Parliament on Wednesday aiming to give more facilities to workers and reducing the workers’ threshold to 20 per cent from the existing 30 per cent for forming trade unions, reports UNB.State Minister for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge) Md Mujibul Haque Chunnu moved the Bill in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) and it was passed by voice vote. Under the new law, the percentage of workers’ participation required for forming trade unions at factories will be reduced to 20 per cent from the existing 30 per cent.The bill was prepared and updated following the observations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which will be a labour-friendly one.As per the Bill, no child will be allowed to work in factories. If anybody employs child workers, then he or she will have to pay a fine of Tk 5,000. In the Bill, the punishment of workers for violating laws has been reduced by 50 per cent while new facilities included for them.Under the new law, the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE) has been upgraded to the level of Directorate. The post of the chief inspector of the department is now inspector general, while deputy director general is additional inspector general, and the post of labour director has been upgraded to the rank of director general. Mentally and physically-challenged labourers cannot be employed for any risky work.According to Section 47 of the Bill, if any female worker gives birth to a baby before informing the authorities, she will get an eight-week leave within three days after informing the authorities. If the factory authorities do not allow her to go on leave, they will be fined Tk 25,000.Besides, if any worker does his or her duty during festival, he or she will get one-day’s leave and a wage for two days after the festival.Both owners and workers will be sentenced to one year in jail with a fine of Tk 10,000 for misconduct, which was two years in the previous law.Section 195 of the law will be applicable for factory owners and Section 196 for labourers and workers.In case of natural death, the family of the worker concerned will get Tk 200,000 (Tk 2 lakh) as compensation, which was Tk 100,000 in the previous law, and in the case of injury, they will get Tk 250,000, which is now Tk 125,000.Besides, if the owner is forced to sign or accept anything applying force, issuing threat, confinement, torture and detaching gas, power and water connections, this will be considered as misconduct.In the new law, the punishment for enforcing strike illegally has been reduced to six months from one year.As per the proposed law, the support of 51 per cent workers is needed against present two-thirds of total workers to call a strike. Illegal enforcement of strike will also be considered as misconduct.
