A draft policy to protect domestic workers, prepared three years ago, would be announced as soon as it is finalised according to the direction of the prime minister.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked labour ministry officials to place the draft of the Domestic Workers’ Protection and Welfare Policy 2010 before the cabinet soon for approval.
Hasina, who is in charge of the labour and employment ministry, gave the directive when the draft policy was placed before her as she attended office at the ministry for the first time.
The ministry, which prepared the draft in association with civil society members after consulting with labour and rights groups, is considering placing the draft before the cabinet within a month, State Minister for Labour Mojibul Haque Chunnu told the Dhaka Tribune after the PM’s visit.
The PM arrived at the ministry inside the secretariat at 10:30am and held a three-hour meeting with officials of the ministry and other agencies and departments under it.
The state minister said the PM asked them to place the policy at a cabinet meeting after finalising it through consultations with stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the draft of adomestic workers’protection act, which would be finalised once the policy is approved, would be placed later, Mojibul said.
“The act will be finalised according to the policy. So, we have given emphasis on finalising the policy,” he said.
Mojibul said the registration of domestic workers would be made mandatory, while registered workers would get facilities like appointment letters, identity cards, fixed wages, fixed working hours, leave and rest period, education and training, medical allowance and compensation for any kind of accidents.
“The prime minister made some observations during her meeting with the officials. The draft will be finalized by including the PM’s directives. It will be announced shortly after getting the approval of the cabinet,” headded.
According to ministry officials, the draft of the policy has remained stuck at the cabinet division since it was prepared in 2010, while the draft of the act was yet to be sent to the division.
The state minister said the drafts of the act and the policy were prepared to protect domestic workers from physical, mental and sexual harassment, limit their working hours and stop the employment of under-12 children.
According to a study by Unicef and International Labour Organisation, there are around 20 lakh domestic workers,including more than 450,000 child servants, in Bangladesh. Among them, around 150,000 workers are employed in different households in the capital.
“There are different rules and regulations on protection and welfare of domestic workers. There is a regulation on not employing children below 12 years of age. There is also a High Court directive in this regard. We have to work for effective implementation of these regulations,” Mojibulsaid.
He added that the ministry planned to enact a security policy for the protection of domestic workers andbring them under a social welfare network.