Economist Debapriya Bhattacharya on Monday said that the country鈥檚 labour class did not get their just share of wages over a timeframe of the last one decade and more.
鈥楾he 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鈥檛 get their just share of wages,鈥� he said.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, chief of the White Paper Committee on the state of the country鈥檚 economy, was talking to reporters on the day after holding a meeting with leaders of the country鈥檚 various labour unions held at Nazia-Salma Conference Hall at the Planning Commission.
Identifying the reasons for such injustice, he said that the labour leaders alleged that the wages of the labourers and workers of Bangladesh were not enough and time befitting.
Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said that the work for preparing the White Paper was ongoing as the committee sat with the young entrepreneurs on Sunday and they had highlighted their potentials and barriers.
In continuation of it, he said that the committee met on Sunday with the labour union leaders.
The economist said that the labour leaders alleged that the basic social security measures like decent accommodation and maternity leave were not enough for boosting safety and security of the workers.
In the meeting, the labour leaders also opined that the initiatives for ensuring welfare of the workers like provident fund or social security were also not enough.
The labour leaders claimed that they were not being able to do trade union activities flawlessly to ensure their just rights side by side there were also 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.
Debapriya said that they cited that in line with the changing world and growing new economy, there was a lack of measures for familiarising the works of the labourers with artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.
They also alleged that the labour rights were often violated in the country since the labour law was not made time befitting and epoch making in accordance with the global standards.
He said, 鈥楢ll of these issues were highlighted to explain why they (workers) didn鈥檛 receive their just wages and allowances over the years despite the country had witnessed development,鈥櫬�
Despite these, the chief of the committee said, the labour leaders have aspirations to move forward further.
Answering to a question, Debapriya said that they had at first fixed the terms of reference of the committee and then they had distributed the works among the committee members according to their special expertise.
He said they had already discussed with the government agencies concerned who dealt with data, discussed with various social communities like business entrepreneurs and labour leaders.
Besides, he said that sector-wise discussions would be held in the coming days, including with the foreign investors, development partners, and then those available data would be incorporated in the report.
Debapriya said that 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 were considering the findings and outcomes of various researches in different fields while carrying forward their work side by side they have already heard from the government agencies concerned to understand their problems.
The economist said that the stakeholder-consultation was one of their five to six methods for carrying out their works.
After preparing the draft report, he said that it would be shared with the chief adviser and then with the media.
鈥楬opefully, we鈥檒l be able to deliver the report within the stipulated timeframe of three months,鈥� he added.