Amended labour act to ensure 15 per cent trade union threshold: Anisul

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday said amendment is being brought to labour act, keeping the provision of a 15 per cent trade union threshold in all the factories in the country.

“As long as the labour amendment bill is not passed, we will listen to all our stakeholders or those international agencies that advocate for labour rights. We would see whether there is any difference between the way we protect labour rights in our country as per the ideology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the advice of the stakeholders,” he said.

The minister said these while talking to newsmen after coming out of his meeting with a delegation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) at the secretariat on Tuesday noon, reports BSS. 

Led by ILO country office director Tuomo Poutiainen, the other members of the delegation are- senior advisor on Standards Policy of International Labour Standards Department Tim De Meyer, Trade for Decent Work technical officer Chayanich Thamparipattra, ILO country officer senior programme officers Md Saidul Islam and Ruksana Yasmin Arzoo.

While speaking about the advice of the ILO delegation, Anisul said they called for bringing down the trade union threshold.

"Earlier, we had brought down the trade union threshold to 15 per cent from 20 per cent. But that was supposed to be applicable in those factories where the total number of workers would be three thousand or more. But now we are keeping the provision for all the factories in the country,” he further said, adding that the provision has been included in the amended labour bill as per the ILO's advice.

The law minister also said the ILO is a global organisation for labourers,  and they always hold discussions for the protection of labour rights. “They always have something to say about labour rights. We listen to them and try to implement them,” he added.