|
Launches and other water transport will be back on rivers again from Friday morning as a strike, which paralysed waterways for three days, was called off Thursday night after the government, water transport owners and workers reached an accord over pay.
"There was a three-way agreement between the parties," labour minister Mosharraf Hossain told reporters after a four-hour meeting with water transport workers and owners.
A 16-strong committee was also formed, he said, consisting representatives from the three parties—six from the workers, six from the owners and four from the government. Hossain said the committee will start functioning from Sunday.
The meeting, which started at 8 pm at the minister's home, decided that the committee, headed by Abu Taleb, head of the labour directorate, will formulate a pay scale for the workers in line with the national one, as agreed last November, by April 30.
Earlier Thursday, a bilateral meeting involving the launch owners, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and the directorate of labour had not resulted in any breakthrough.
After the meeting, chairman of BIWTA Mahbubuddin Ahmed had told bdnews24.com that the workers would have to withdraw their strike before three-way talks could start.
However, the joint secretary of the Water Transport Workers Federation, Deen Mohammad, told bdnews24.com that the proposal was illogical and the talks could not be held with such a precondition. "They must talk in the current situation," he had said.
"Both the owners' association and the government are not executing the agreements, which were signed earlier. The last agreement, signed in November, has not been implemented," he said.
The three parties eventually agreed to sit again Thursday night at the residence of the labour minister without any "preconditions" as the workers federation had stipulated. Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan was also present as an accord was reached around midnight.
Water transport across Bangladesh came to a standstill for three days as 150,000 members of the Water Transport Workers Federation called an indefinite strike, following the collapse of earlier talks on March 16, to resolve their long-standing demands for better pay.
The strike stranded thousands of regular river passengers across the country. Transport of goods in many areas was also disrupted during the strike causing economic woes.
Bangladesh, covered by a network of about 250 rivers, is highly dependent on water transport. Navigable water routes stretch about 6,000 km during the monsoon and about 3,800 km in the dry season.
Some 72 million passengers travel by inland waterways every year and about 890,000 transport vessels of all sizes carry about 1.2 million tonnes of freight annually on rivers.
According to a government study carried out in 1994, 13 percent passengers and 32 percent of goods on inland waters were carried annually by mechanised water transport.
Water transport workers last went on strike for three days from Nov 6-9 last year. They withdrew the strike then too after the government and the water transport owners association assured them of a proper pay scale.
Source: bdnews24.com
|
News 
RSS