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BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has criticised the interim government for shutting down factories and mills owned by business allies of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Fresh unemployment has been created in the country due to the closure of the factories, he said.
The BNP leader came up with the remarks while addressing a press conference organised by Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal at the party's Nayapaltan central office in the capital on Wednesday on the eve of May Day.
Some businessmen, who were supporters of the fascist Hasina government, laundered large amounts of money from the country. However, they established the factories and business companies in which thousands of workers were employed, he said.
"But after the fall of the Hasina regime, it wasn't wise to terminate the employees and shut down factories and mills. Rather the interim government should have saved the industries and appointed capable administrators to run those factories."
"Bring to justice those, who laundered money and helped the regime to stay power. But making employees jobless wasn't a right policy," he added.
Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, the labour wing of the BNP, will organise a rally today to observe May Day.
BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman will virtually address the rally as the chief guest and speak on the current labour situation and contemporary national politics.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir along with top national leaders and labour leaders will address the workers' rally.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) of Bangladesh, 73.5 million, out of 120 million, voters are workers, Rizvi said in a written statement.
He said during the fascist regime, workers were barred from organising and deprived of trade union rights.
As many as 71 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Workers' Party, 30 rickshaw workers and countless known and unknown floating workers have been martyred during the July uprising, he added.
Due to the looting and corruption of the fallen Hasina government, state-run jute and sugar mills have been closed and thousands of workers have become jobless.
Although the minimum wage and national wage scales are scheduled to be announced in every five-year according to the conventional rules, the minimum wage and national wage scales have not been announced for more than 10 years during the previous fascist Hasina government.
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