Staff Reporter :
The loss of job was over 3 per cent of the total labour force and some 1.5 crore people became new poor from the profound impact of the covid pandemic, according to a new study released on Saturday.
Of the job losses, some 6.7 per cent jobs were lost in urban informal economy and high level job loss occurred during the immediate period while the highest amount of job loss would be in the SMEs and informal sector till the end of 2021, the study also added.
Some 0.4 million migrants lost their jobs during March-September, 2020, according to the study on “Recovery of the Labour Market during Covid-19: Role of Trade Union”, conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the CPD, presented the key findings of the study at a virtual dialogue jointly organised by the CPD and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS).
A slower recovery in terms of creating jobs in labour-intensive sectors, women-led enterprises were more vulnerable during the crisis period, about 50 per cent of enterprises have reported laying off 76-100 per cent of their workers, the study also found.
Meanwhile, Trade union policy strategy should give attention to both organised and unorganised workers amid the pandemic.
Different worker groups, including regular, temporary, and casual workers and small-scale employers – particularly those self-employed and involved in micro, small and medium enterprises; retailing, construction, road, commerce, tourism, and other informal sectors – are still reeling from the Covid-19 shock.
So, effective social dialogues will be the key to the sustainable recovery of the labour market.
The observations emerged from the virtual dialogue on “Recovery of the Labour Market during Covid-19: Role of Trade Union” jointly organised by the Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) on Saturday.
Speaking at the dialogue, Shirin Akhter, member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and also vice-chairman of BILS, called for increasing the number of enlisted organised workers.
“There are many workers in the formal and informal sector in the country. But we do not have a proper list of them yet. We can grasp the overall situation of employers and workers through social dialogues,” she said.
Syed Manzur Elahi, former advisor to the Caretaker Government and chairman of Apex Group, said: “There is a communication gap. So, tripartite coordination has to be ensured among the government, factory owners and workers.”
Labour Secretary KM Abdus Salam said, “All stakeholders are heard with equal importance and monitoring is taking place regularly through a central monitoring committee.”
