The housing ministry authority has taken a decision to give gratuity to 161 third and fourth class employees in breach of existing laws. As a result, the government will have to pay Tk 210 million.
The gratuity issue has triggered a lot of questions. The employment policy of the housing ministry says that it will be applicable for all full time workers but if the policy is not mentioned in the job appointment then it will not be applicable.
The mentioned 161 employees do not have the policy mentioned in their appointment. The housing department says: “These employees do not fall under either permanent or temporary; they are under development sector.”
Meanwhile, both permanent and temporary employee is placed under the definition of a ‘worker’ of the work policy of the department.
At the 197th board meeting held on Mar 10 last, a decision was taken to provide gratuity to workers. The meet was presided over by the chairman, Md Rashidul Islam.
The main salary of these people is Tk 10,000 each and against the main salary, the gratuity stands at Tk 210 million.
Reportedly, these workers started a movement to have their jobs made permanent but some labour leaders extorted money from them, promising to make their movement a success. But since the government did not make their jobs permanent, they were given promise of gratuity.
It’s believed that labour leaders took Tk 6.1 million from the workers and pledged to get them Tk 210 million as gratuity.
Several officials of the housing department say that only the regular workers are entitled to get pension and gratuity. In addition, those who will get gratuity in the future have an amount cut off from their provident fund.
However, those who are work based employees; do not get any pension or retirement benefits.
Money is not even cut off from their salaries for a provident fund, sources inform.