PM Hasina asks business owners to focus on labourers, not luxury

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged business owners to focus more on the workers rather than luxury and extravagance.

“The government won’t spare anyone if they deprive labourers of their legitimate rights,” she said in a discussion meeting organised by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to observe May Day on Wednesday.

She paid her respect to the workers who sacrificed their lives to realise the rights of labourers.

The Awami League’s goal is to bring a positive change in the lives of the working class and the government won’t tolerate anyone who deprives the workers of their rights, she said.

She recalled that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began to work to bring freedom to the oppressed people in the country by eliminating class disparity.

“There was no industry in this region when a devastated Bangladesh emerged from the war. Bangabandhu ensured livelihoods for the working class by rebuilding the country and its economy just the way a mother tends to her sick child. He established workers’ rights and Bangladesh secured membership in the International Labour Organisation (ILO),” she said.

Her government has been working to ensure a proper and safe workplace for labourers, the prime minister said. “We removed the tax for fire extinguishing equipment to make them easily available. This will ensure safer industrial factories. Today, Bangladesh has 10 of the best green industrial factories in the world.”

The Awami League has always remained supportive of workers during tough times, Hasina said, adding they helped the workers, especially when the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition ‘opted for fire violence’ and ‘torched buses, trucks, trains and launches.’

“We gave them financial support and arranged for free treatment. I believe it’s the Awami League’s duty to ensure the welfare of the workers.”

She also highlighted the government’s formation of a central welfare trust to provide financial help to the workers in the export-oriented garment factories and also its overhaul of the ‘National Labour Law 2012.’

In the context of the Russia-Ukraine war and recent atrocities on Palestinians by Israel, the global economy was affected by high inflation, she said. “To ensure the workers maintain a good living standard, we raised their salary from Tk 8,000 to Tk 12,500. Not only in the garment factories but the minimum wage has been revised in 42 sectors.”

The prime minister reminded the owners of their responsibility to their workers and vice versa. “It is the workers’ duty to serve the interest of the owner whose factory provides their employment and their living. On the other hand, owners must ensure the betterment of the workers. I hope you’ll reduce your indulgences and focus more on the workers.”

Hasina called for increasing production by ensuring a good relationship between the workers and owners. “The country belongs to all of us. People’s purchasing capacity will rise when the country develops. Factory owners will have new markets and profit while our workers will get a good life.”

The prime minister said some quarters try to instigate workers to hit the road and create agitation. “The factories are the sources of your [workers] foods and clothes; your livelihoods. When you [workers] wreck or torch those, who suffers? You and your families,” she said.

The owners also suffer when factories are vandalised, but they have multiple businesses and can manage the loss by making a profit from another business. So, it was the workers who would be affected the most, Hasina explained.

“If you face any problem, you can come to me. My door is always open to you,” she told workers.