The government has recently approved a total of 192 new posts and eight district offices for the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments to ensure effective labour inspection in the country.
Out of 192 new posts, the government approved 99 inspector, 23 assistant inspector general, 11 deputy inspector general and one joint inspector general posts.
According to the DIFE, previously the number of posts of the department was 888, including 575 inspectors.
Some 360 labour Inspectors are working at the DIFE against the total posts.
According to a labour ministry notification issued on August 4, new offices of the DIFE would be established in Gopalganj, Manikganj, Feni, Brahmanbaria, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Jamalpur and Naogaon districts.
Currently, there are 23 district offices of the DIFE.
The government has taken the move for increasing posts of labour inspector as per its commitments to the International Labour Organisation and the European Union.
In 2019, the EU provided a list of ‘suggested actions on labour rights’ to Bangladesh which included nine issues and requested to address the issues to continue receiving tariff preferences in the economic bloc under everything but arms facility in the economic bloc.
In the suggested actions, the EU recommended that Bangladesh provide new labour inspectors and ensure full functionality of labour inspectorate.
‘The government has taken the initiative to increase the number of labour inspectors to ensure the implementation of labour act in all establishments. At the same time, creating new posts for labour inspectors was also the recommendations made by the ILO and the EU,’ Md Nasir Uddin Ahmed, inspector general of the DIFE told New Age on Sunday.
He said that in the last week of July, the government had approved 162 new posts and eight new offices for the DIFE.
Nasir said that the meeting of the secretary-level committee on administrative development on Sunday approved 30 more posts for the inspectors.
The DIFE chief said that the posts for the grade 9 and 10 including inspectors would be recruited through the Bangladesh Public Service Commission.
Regarding eight new offices, he said that officials would be posted to the new offices in the first week of September.
(NA)