Z A M Khairuzzaman :
This year, Bangladesh has been part of the world’s observance of the International Workers’ Day with all its connotations.
On the day, most of the national and regional newspapers carried a close-up shot of hardworking workers breaking bricks, carrying loads, or manning the machine.
Political parties, especially the left-leaning parties, brandished their hammers and scythes to bring out a routine rally here and there, chanting slogans about breaking the chains of oppression to unite the local labourers with their comrades all around.
Newspaper editorials in their sophisticated articulation reminded the readers of the place where it all began: the Haymarket Affair of 1886 in which workers in Chicago demanded for an eight-hour workday and how their peaceful rally turned into a riot killing scores of workers and police officials, and how their sacrifice paved the way for some labour rights that did not exist before.
Readers were told how three years later, in 1889, the socialists and the communists of the Second International decided to commemorate the day as the International Workers’ Day, and how many countries around the world decided to observe it as a public holiday.
The International Workers’ Day, widely known as May Day, was observed across Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the world, in a befitting manner.
However, there are certain dimensions that need to be addressed sooner for the betterment of the country.
Prominent economist Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, also the newly elected President of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), has lamented saying that the stark reality is that the fate of hundreds of thousands of working people of the country changed little after 138 years of the Haymarket tragedy in the US in 1886.
He lamented while delivering the Great May Day Memorial Lecture organised recently by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) in the capital’s CIRDAP Auditorium,
Bangladesh attained an unprecedented socio-economic advancement during the past era. Despite this achievement, the country’s large numbers of workers are yet to reap its benefits. Increase in their sharp discrimination speaks for the same. Because of high inflation rate, pressure on low income people has increased manifold. In such a situation, it is imperative on the part of the government to implement its announced policy.
The May Day Memorial Lecture exposed the exploitations of workers by the owners of mills and factories. Scores of the country’s workers experience high rates of wage non-payment and exposure to hazardous working conditions with no coverage for on-the-job injuries. It is especially the informal workers who are forced to accept whatever jobs are available and to agree to work on employers’ terms.
The speaker of the memorial lecture has underscored the need for ensuring fair wages and all other rights of hapless workers aiming to reduce the discriminations through realisation of the spirit of Liberation War.
RMG is the major export-earning sector in Bangladesh where the minimum wages of garment workers increased from Tk 8,000 to Tk 12,500. But the amount is still too meagre to cope with non-stop skyrocketing of essential commodities as well as high standard of living.
In our tea sector, a dismal situation prevails.
They have to struggle to meet their daily necessities. The wages of Indian tea workers are higher enough than that of Bangladeshi tea workers which is unfortunate indeed!
In our country, 85% of workers are employed in the informal sector. Although a large number of workers are employed in this sector, yet these workers remain deprived of the rights and facilities that the workers of the formal sector enjoy.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, one third of the country’s total workers are agricultural workers. But, regrettably, their numbers are reportedly decreasing gradually.
Time has come to forcefully raise the demands of agricultural workers. The government should ensure their logical rights as per the country’s Constitution and rule of law.
The vulnerability of domestic workers is rooted in the nature of their work-typically undertaken behind closed doors in private homes far from their own communities-and the lack of legal protection they receive.
It is high time on the part of the government to make effective the official monitoring cell through regular inspection activities.
Presently, the issue of workers’ rights is a top priority.
Especially, the sufferings of informal sector workers know no bound. They are deprived of all facilities. What is alarming is that in name of essential service, the government is moving to put these workers in jeopardy. In this situation, there is no alternative to united trade union movement.
Greetings to BILS for regularly organising the great May Day Memorial Lecture! It helps keep aloft the national trade union movement for the welfare of the country’s countless working people and realise the spirit of May Day. This year’s theme is “Build Bangladesh Free from Discrimination, Ensure Workers’ Rights.”
The writer is the senior vice-president of Bangladesh Labour Rights Journalist Forum. E-mail: [email protected]
