US urges to lower threshold while forming trade union: law minister

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the US expressed their interest in working with the Bangladesh government as a partner in lowering the trade union threshold in the labour sector.

"The US is very aware of the rights of workers, and it is a very important issue to them. It is also an important factor to the Bangladesh government. It is so important that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina kept the helm of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in her hands," the minister told journalists.

The law minister briefed the media persons after meeting with US Embassy in Dhaka Labour Attaché Leena Khan and First Secretary (Political) Matthew Beh at his secretariat office last afternoon.

"We have discussed labour rights issue with the labour attaché of the US embassy here. This discussion is ongoing since last year. We have discussed the progress and further possibilities. Today we have discussed the labour amendment bill, which was sent by the president back to the parliament," he added.

Anisul Huq further said they would hold a meeting with a delegation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Wednesday. The meeting of the ILO governing body would be held in March and they have already enquired about a couple of things from us to learn about our progress in the sector. We would inform them about those matters after this meeting, he said.

Regarding the trade union threshold, he said the US always had their say on this matter, adding, "We said that we have lowered this to 15 percent. There was a condition that this would only be applicable in factories where the total number of workers would be three thousand or more. We can have a discussion on this matter."

"They said such factories are very few, where three thousand or more workers work. In reply, I have said that we can decide after discussing the matter with the stakeholders," he added.

While replying to a question regarding Dr Yunus, he said there was no discussion about him.