US to establish full-time labour attaché in Dhaka

The United States Department of Labour is working actively to establish a full-time labour attaché for its embassy in the Bangladesh capital to ensure ‘greater engagement’ on workers’ rights and workplace safety here in the coming months and years. “…we’re working actively to establish a full-time labour attaché in our Embassy in Dhaka,” Eric Biel, acting Associate Deputy Undersecretary for International Lbour Affairs at the US Department of Labour, said in Washington on Tuesday night. “We at the Department of Labour have been in regular contact in the past three months with Ambassador Mozena and his team, and others at the State Department, on the steps needed to establish this permanent labor attaché position,” Eric Biel said. He also informed that staff of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) will be in Dhaka later this month for detailed discussions on the process and logistics involved. Eric Biel mentioned that US Senate Committee Chairman Senator Robert Menendez’s letter of November 7 to Secretary of State John Kerry provided the critical impetus for this effort, according to UNB.