A bill was placed in parliament on Thursday keeping a provision of punishment  for enforcement of ‘illegal strike’ that may affect essential services.

The Essential Services Bill 2023 was placed in Parliament integrating the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1952 and the Essential Services (Second) Ordinance 1958 .

The government can declare the essential status of any service for maximum six months as per the draft law proposed by the Labour and Employment Ministry.

The government would be able to declare any service essential when necessary once the bill is passed by parliament.

The bill proposed maximum one year jail and Tk 1 lakh fine for violation of the law.

The essential services already included power generation and distribution-related activities, posts and telecommunications, railways, passenger and goods transportation through water, road and air ways.

As per the bill, the management would not be allowed to lay off any factory or other establishments ‘illegally’ affecting such services that could hit hard the public. 

The bill is written in Bangla from English, integrating two old laws on essential services, which now include e-commerce, internet and digital services.

State Minister for Labour and Employment Munnujan Sufian placed the bill and it was sent to the respective scrutiny committee for further examination.

The Committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days. 

This law would prevail in case of any contradiction to the labour law.