Secretariat employees on Thursday threatened to lay siege the Ministry of Finance on Sunday if Public Service (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 is not scrapped within the next 48 hours.
The announcement came during a brief rally on Thursday in front of Building No 4 at the Secretariat, where leaders of the Bangladesh Secretariat Officers and Employees Unity Forum addressed protesters.
Badiul Kabir, co-chairman of the forum, declared the protest programme.
Forum Co-Chairman Nurul Islam and Co-General Secretary Nazrul Islam were also present, along with other leaders.
"We will not accept any amendment to this ordinance. This is a black law and it must be repealed," Badiul Kabir said, warning that employees would stage a sit-in in front of the Finance Ministry on Sunday.
"If this disrupts all activities of the building, we will not take responsibility," he added.
He urged the government to withdraw the ordinance within 48 hours and create the conditions for employees to return to their duties.
Issued on May 25, the ordinance empowers authorities to terminate any government employee for misconduct by serving two separate 7-working-day show cause notices without requiring a departmental proceeding or formal investigation.
Since its issuance, Secretariat staff have been staging continuous protests, calling for the ordinance to be revoked.
In response, the government formed a review committee headed by the Adviser on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. The committee held its first meeting on Monday and reportedly agreed to engage in dialogue with employee representatives.
However, employee leaders claimed today that they had yet to receive any formal invitation from the government for such discussions.
