The meeting of the newly formed BILS Advisory Council was held on August 19, 2023 in the BILS Seminar Hall at Dhanmondi, Dhaka, chaired by BILS Chairman Md. Habibur Rahman Shiraz. The meeting was attended by Advisory Council Members Shah Mohd. Abu Zafar, Dr. Mahfuzul Haque, Mesbahuddin Ahmed, Quamrul Ahsan, Naimul Ahsan Jewel, Rowshan Jahan Sathi, Dr. Monirul I Khan, Abdus Salam Khan, Farida Akter, Mikail Shipar, Badal Khan, Abdul Matin Master, Kutubuddin Ahmed, Md. Sirajul Islam and A M Nazim Uddin.

The Members expressed their views and said the revised strategy of the Trade Union needs to be formulated to consider the risk asserted to the workers due to climate change. The trade union movement process needs to be rethought, and the position of the trade union needs to be redefined while keeping in mind the market economy, they added. They also mentioned the role of BILS, especially with the government needs to be reviewed for further acceleration. BILS needs to do more work on child labour and consider strengthening good relations with the government for serving better purpose of the working people, they underscored. A strategy paper should be prepared for the restructuring of the structure of workers’ relations with the state. They also emphasized, research efforts are needed to find out why the number of women workers is decreasing and what the limitations of trade unions is in this regard.

BILS Secretary General and Executive Director Nazrul Islam Khan, Joint Secretary General and former Executive Director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, BILS Director Kohinoor Mahmood and Deputy Director Md. Yousuf Al-Mamun were present among others to facilitate the meeting.