A parliamentary watchdog yesterday asked the government to take immediate actions to stop the sudden job cuts at different industrial units.
The parliamentary standing committee on the Labour and Employment Ministry at its meeting recommended that the government should talk to factory owners for the payment of Eid bonuses in order to stop labour unrest.
“Retrenchment is allowed in the labour law. But job cut without notice is not acceptable. So, the committee has recommended taking action in this regard,” Mujibul Haque, the state minister for the Labour and Employment Ministry and member of the 10-member watchdog, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at the parliament building.
He said the ministry had information that many factories had been planning job cuts over the last two months.
“According to the labour law, the companies must pay the due wages before retrenchment,” said the minister.
Mujibul said: “The authorities of the Beximco Industrial Park have retrenched over 2,800 workers over the last two months”.
Inspector General of the factories and establishments Syed Ahmed who attended the meeting, told the Dhaka Tribune that the Beximco authorities had paid all unpaid wages and facilities to the workers.
He said his department and the industrial police supervised the process of job cuts in Beximco.
Syed Ahmed said his directorate had reports of frequent job cuts by many factories but he could not figure it out.
Former state minister for labour and chairman of the standing committee Monnuzan Sufian, presided over the meeting attended by Israfil Alam, Anwarul Abedin Khan, Chhobi Biswas, Shirin Akhter, Md Ruhul Amin, Rezaul Haque Chowdhury and Roksna Yasmin Chhuti.
