Labour and Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday said the government will bring 23 amendments to the labour law for making it more worker-friendly.
“We are taking opinions from stakeholders about the amendments and it is likely to pass in the next session of parliament," he told reporters after inaugurating a national symposium on rights of the labourers who are working in informal sectors at a city hotel.
The government plans to make a policy and a new law to ensure rights of the informal workers, who take up 80 percent of the total workforce.
"We need a different law for the informal workers as it's not possible to protect their rights within the existing labour law," he said.
Mosharraf said they are considering formulating a specific policy for the domestic workers for providing decent working environment to them.
"Domestic workers should come under a policy while the informal workers in the agriculture sector need to be regulated under an organisation," the minister said.
The National Symposium was organised to take opinion from different stakeholders for initiating a new project titled 'Supporting Grass Roots Activities through the International
Employer's and Workers Network (SGRA)' to uplift the living standard of the informal workers.
Japan International Labour Foundation (JILAF) and Association of International Employers and Workers Network with the financial help of the Japan government will initiate the project in Bangladesh this year.
Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Shiro Sadoshima spoke as the special guest at the inaugural session that was also addressed by Deputy Assistant Minister for International Policy Planning of the Japan government Masaaki Luchi, Director of ILO Bangladesh Office Andre Bogui.
Mosharraf said informal workers can be translated into dynamic and efficient human resource by providing vocational training, extending proper medicare, giving education to their children and disbursing some capital in the form of microcredit to make them self-reliant through cooperative and self employment.
He said the government is spending around two billion US dollar every year for improving the livelihood of these working people through various safety net programmes.
"These huge spending accounts for more than two percent of our GDP and it is probably the highest among the sub-regional countries," he said.
Later, JILAF assistant general secretary Kenichi Kumagai told the news agency that they would first pilot the project with 100 informal workers near Dhaka this year.
JILAF is implementing similar projects in Thailand and Nepal with financial support from the Japanese government.