Labour class didn’t get just wages for more than a decade: Dr Debapriya

Renowned economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya has said that the country’s labour class did not get their fair share of wages over the timeframe of the last decade and more.

“The main topic of the discussion was whatever development took place in Bangladesh over the last one decade and more or in recent past, the labour class didn’t get their just share of wages,” he said.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Chief of the White Paper Committee on the state of the country’s economy, was talking to reporters this afternoon after holding a meeting with the leaders of the country’s various labour unions held at the Nazia-Salma Conference Hall in the Planning Commission on Monday.

Identifying the reasons for such injustice, he said the labour leaders alleged that the wages of the labourers and workers of Bangladesh are not enough and time befitting.

Dr Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the work for preparing the White Paper is ongoing as the committee sat with the young entrepreneurs yesterday and they had highlighted their potentials and barriers.

In continuation of it, he said the committee met with the labour union leaders on Monday.

The renowned economist said the labour leaders alleged that the basic social security measures like decent accommodation and maternity leave were not enough to boost the safety and security of the workers.

In the meeting, the labour leaders also opined that the initiatives for ensuring the welfare of the workers like a provident fund or social security are also not enough.

The labour leaders claimed that they were not able to do trade union activities flawlessly to ensure their just rights side by side there is also a lack of proper measures to restart the closed mills and factories due to the ill-motive of the vested quarters and the deviations of the government rules and regulations.

Dr Debapriya said they cited that in line with the changing world and growing new economy, there is a lack of measures for familiarizing the workers of the labourers with AI and other advanced technologies.

They also alleged that labour rights are often violated in the country since the labour law was not made time-befitting and epoch-making in accordance with global standards.

He said, “All of these issues were highlighted to explain why they (workers) didn’t receive their just wages and allowances over the years despite the country had witnessed development,” 

Despite these, the chief of the committee said, the labour leaders have aspirations to move forward further.

Answering a question, Dr Debapriya said that they have at first fixed the terms of reference of the committee and then they have distributed the works among the committee members according to their special expertise.

He said they have already discussed with the concerned government agencies who deal with data, discussed with various social communities like business entrepreneurs and labour leaders.

Besides, he said sector-wise discussions would be held in the coming days including with the foreign investors, and development partners and then those available data would be incorporated in the report.

Dr Debapriya said they would hold three town hall meetings in Chattogram, Rajshahi and Sylhet. After incorporating all the data from such parleys, the committee would frame a draft report and thus move forward keeping ahead the timeframe of three months.

Replying to another question, he said that they are considering the findings and outcomes of various research in different fields while carrying forward their work side by side they have already heard from the concerned government agencies to understand their problems.

The eminent economist said the stakeholder-consultation is one of their five to six methods for carrying out their work.

After preparing the draft report, he said it would be shared with the Chief Adviser and then with the media.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to deliver the report within the stipulated timeframe of three months,” he added.