The Ministry of Commerce in assistance of the Ministry of Labour is going to put pressure on apparel factory owners to expedite the activities of social and environmental compliance, eco-efficiency and occupational health and safety of workers.
Rahim Steel and Ship-breaking Yard violated the warning of the Department of Explosives while scrapping oil tanker MT AGATE in Sitakunda on Saturday, which caused an explosion killing six workers and injuring many others.
Bangladesh policymakers hope that the country's manpower exports will grow substantially in 2010, despite a huge fall this past year. "Several countries have emerged from the impacts of the global recession. New labour markets are being created and we're being asked to send workers," overseas employment minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told bdnews24.com. "I hope the next year will be a good one for us," the upbeat minister added.
A case was filed on Sunday against six people for Saturday’s explosion at a ship-breaking yard here that left four workers killed and 15 others injured.
At least four workers were killed and 13 others injured in an oil-tank explosion of a scrap ship at a ship-breaking yard in Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong Saturday morning. Authorities fear the death toll could rise further since the oil-tank was burning till filing of the report around 4:30pm.
The government has decided to bring under a legal framework the ship-breaking industries that have developed informally in Chittagong, raising safety concerns for workers and posing threat to environment.
BNP leaders and workers are in the dark over the process of formation of party committees including national standing committee and central executive committee, as it is not clearly stated in the party constitution. The party men even don't know whether the committees would be formed during or after the council. The council is only two days away.
Violating instructions and directives of the high command of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a section of leaders and workers are still engaged in intra-party conflict and trying to establish supremacy in their respective areas throughout the country, according to party sources.
Talks between river transport workers and the shipping ministry failed on Sunday afternoon. The workers vowed to continue their indefinite strike on passenger, goods and fishing vessels, which began Saturday midnight paralysing river communications from morning. The Bangladesh River Transport Workers Federation, a coalition of worker unions, enforced the strike to press their 22-point demands, including a proper pay scale, effective application of riverine laws and a stop to harassment and robbery on river routes.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia said Thursday that the government was filing false cases against leaders and workers of the opposition party to deter them from mounting any opposition to against its failures. "Failures cannot be concealed by such oppression and harassment cases," the leader of the opposition said as just-released BNP leader Amanullah Aman met with Khaleda at her political office in Gulshan.
