Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed labour ministry officials to construct high-rise complexes in abandoned or grabbed government lands.
These buildings will be used for housing hospitals, training centres and dormitories for workers, junior Labour Minister Mojibul Haque Chunnu said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended her office at the labour ministry on Sunday morning as a minister, her first meeting at the ministry.
She attended a meeting with officials of the ministry and instructed them to construct buildings at abandoned lands and recover those occupied illegally.
The buildings will be constructed with minimum interest loan from the Bangladesh Bank, junior Minister Chunnu told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.
Hasina also directed the officials concerned to form labour welfare committees comprising of owners and employees of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and other places where trade unions are a problem.
The government aims to establish industrial zones within seven divisions and ordered officials to solve medical, training and residential problems of the workers, she said.
Junior Minister Chunnu said there are 23 factory inspectors' offices in the country working against children working in hazardous conditions. The premier ordered training and schooling centres for them to raise them to be qualified for a job.
Hasina also directed for training female workers for raising their efficiency, he said. Four training centres already exist in Rangpur division and those in the six other divisions will be set up shortly.
“A total of 14,500 workers have been selected for the training. They will be rehabilitated within three years.”
Regarding wages, the junior minister said 85% of the factories have implemented the new wages set by the government and that the others will follow soon.
“Implementation of the minimum wage standard is not a problem. The main problem is the house-rent. We have a rent control act to keep rent hike in check.”
“We have taken an initiative to amend the rent control act to save people from unethical hikes in house-rent. We will send a proposal to the law ministry in this regard soon.”
The premier was also said to have directed officials to construct housing complexes for slum workers in minimum wages.
Regarding retaining the GSP facilities, Chunnu said the country has fulfilled most of the conditions out of 16. The rest would be fulfilled shortly.
“We have already appointed 242 factory inspectors for the directorate of factories and institutes. The recruitment process for the remaining 200 inspectors will be finished by March.”
Hasina emphasised finalising the rules of implementation of the Labour law-2006 amended act. The rules will be finalised in a meeting on February 26.