Badrul Ahsan :
The government is set to introduce a contributory provident fund for the workers of the country’s informal sector aiming at ensuring their economic and social security, sources said.
To this effect, Ministry of Labour will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) so that workers can open accounts for provident fund in any branch of post office across the country.
There are 42 industrial sectors, including garment, leather, pharmaceuticals, jute, ship-breaking, cold storage, plastic, chemical, fertilizer, and those are known as formal sectors and the workers of the sectors are protected by the labour law.
On the other hand, there are lots of workers in the country’s informal sectors, including agricultural worker, blacksmith, carpenter, rickshaw-van puller, domestic worker, construction, electric, shoe, steel and engineering, welding worker, security guard, cleaner, tailoring worker and hawker, who have no limited legal scope to organise to protect their rights.
The ministry is expected to launch the provident fund programme for the informal sector workers within this month (April) in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
‘We will try to get a slot from the prime minister any time of this month. The labour ministry would sign a MoU with BPO in presence of the Prime Minister so that workers can open accounts for provident fund in any branch of post office across the country,’ Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar told The New Nation.
After getting application from workers for opening provident fund account, the post office will inform the ministry and the ministry will scrutinize the applications for approval, he said.
Labour secretary said that the ministry formulated the provident fund rules for informal sector workers under a provision of the Bangladesh Labour Welfare.
However, the labour ministry has already finalised Informal Sector Workers’ Provident Fund Rules-2017 for the scheme.
Foundation Act 2006 and the labourers who work in the sector out of the purview of labour law would also be entitled to provident fund facility.
Meanwhile, according to the rules, the provident fund would be formed with the contribution to be made by the workers and government’s workers welfare fund, and if the workers worked in any small economic unit, the fund would be formed by the contribution of workers, owners and the welfare fund.
The tenure of the provident fund will be 25 years and worker will not get the government contribution if he or she fails to continue the fund for less than five years.
Initially workers’ monthly deposit will be Tk 100 and the government will also contribute the equal amount in the workers account from the workers welfare foundation.
As per the rules, a worker can deposit highest Tk 500 per month while the government’s maximum contribution will be Tk 250 per month.
After the maturity of the tenure, workers will get total amount of money contributed by workers and foundation with the interest offered by the savings institute and additional 10 per cent interest on total deposit from the foundation.
In case of permanent disability or death of workers, his or her nominee will get Taka two lakh, for any fatal disease after three years of opening account for the provident fund worker would get up to Tk one lakh and female workers will get maternity benefits up to Tk 25,000 twice during the PF fund tenure from the WWF under the provident fund rules.
Mikail Shipar said that workers of agricultural sector, poultry and fisheries, cottage industry, construction sector, domestic worker, hawker, security guard, rickshaw puller, day labourers and tailors would get priority for the benefit.
The government is set to introduce a contributory provident fund for the workers of the country’s informal sector aiming at ensuring their economic and social security, sources said.
To this effect, Ministry of Labour will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) so that workers can open accounts for provident fund in any branch of post office across the country.
There are 42 industrial sectors, including garment, leather, pharmaceuticals, jute, ship-breaking, cold storage, plastic, chemical, fertilizer, and those are known as formal sectors and the workers of the sectors are protected by the labour law.
On the other hand, there are lots of workers in the country’s informal sectors, including agricultural worker, blacksmith, carpenter, rickshaw-van puller, domestic worker, construction, electric, shoe, steel and engineering, welding worker, security guard, cleaner, tailoring worker and hawker, who have no limited legal scope to organise to protect their rights.
The ministry is expected to launch the provident fund programme for the informal sector workers within this month (April) in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
‘We will try to get a slot from the prime minister any time of this month. The labour ministry would sign a MoU with BPO in presence of the Prime Minister so that workers can open accounts for provident fund in any branch of post office across the country,’ Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar told The New Nation.
After getting application from workers for opening provident fund account, the post office will inform the ministry and the ministry will scrutinize the applications for approval, he said.
Labour secretary said that the ministry formulated the provident fund rules for informal sector workers under a provision of the Bangladesh Labour Welfare.
However, the labour ministry has already finalised Informal Sector Workers’ Provident Fund Rules-2017 for the scheme.
Foundation Act 2006 and the labourers who work in the sector out of the purview of labour law would also be entitled to provident fund facility.
Meanwhile, according to the rules, the provident fund would be formed with the contribution to be made by the workers and government’s workers welfare fund, and if the workers worked in any small economic unit, the fund would be formed by the contribution of workers, owners and the welfare fund.
The tenure of the provident fund will be 25 years and worker will not get the government contribution if he or she fails to continue the fund for less than five years.
Initially workers’ monthly deposit will be Tk 100 and the government will also contribute the equal amount in the workers account from the workers welfare foundation.
As per the rules, a worker can deposit highest Tk 500 per month while the government’s maximum contribution will be Tk 250 per month.
After the maturity of the tenure, workers will get total amount of money contributed by workers and foundation with the interest offered by the savings institute and additional 10 per cent interest on total deposit from the foundation.
In case of permanent disability or death of workers, his or her nominee will get Taka two lakh, for any fatal disease after three years of opening account for the provident fund worker would get up to Tk one lakh and female workers will get maternity benefits up to Tk 25,000 twice during the PF fund tenure from the WWF under the provident fund rules.
Mikail Shipar said that workers of agricultural sector, poultry and fisheries, cottage industry, construction sector, domestic worker, hawker, security guard, rickshaw puller, day labourers and tailors would get priority for the benefit.
