The government is closely monitoring the labour unrest in several industrial zones across the country and hopes that normalcy will return soon.
Following the Advisory Council meeting yesterday, two interim government advisers—Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan—spoke about it in a briefing.
Adviser Rizwana Hasan said the labour unrest is being closely monitored and urged the workers to file complaints under the Labour Act.
Adviser to the Labour and Employment Ministry Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan said the government has formed a “Labour Related Complaints Monitoring Committee” to resolve the labour dispute for improvement of the country’s labour situation.
“We are sitting regularly to resolve these issues. Yesterday (Wednesday) we had a meeting, where six advisers were present. Some problems have arisen, like a big company that could not pay the salary of their workers, who later staged demonstrations. At the time, the finance adviser talked to the Bangladesh Bank Governor and arranged a loan of Tk79 crore, and that amount was disbursed among 40,000 employees of that company. That’s why the labour unrest was not seen today (yesterday),” the labour adviser added.
He urged the labourers to place their demands at the labour building where the committee members are receiving complaints.
“If the complaints are submitted, we will take action so that we can resolve them as soon as possible. We hope that the labour unrest will be brought under control soon,” he added.
Asif Mahmud also mentioned that in some places some people were trying to create unrest centering on extortion. A Chhatra League leader who is leading a labour wing was also arrested for this reason on Wednesday.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the Chief Adviser, conducted the press conference at the Foreign Service Academy.
‘July Shaheed Smriti Foundation’ formed
The council of advisers formed the “July Shaheed Smriti Foundation”, by nominating Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus as its President, and Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho, the twin brother of Shaheed Mir Mugdho, as Secretary.
Adviser Asif Mahmud announced the formation of the foundation at the press conference.
Additionally, a seven-member executive council was constituted for the foundation. The members are advisers Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Noorjahan Begum, and Sharmeen Murshid.
Kazi Waqar Ahmed has been designated as the treasurer due to his expertise, Asif Mahmud told the press conference. The foundation will also include 14 more general members.
It will look after the martyrs’ families and the medical treatment for the injured persons of the July Revolution so that no other government can forget their sacrifices in the future.
Roadmap to recover public money
The council meeting also decided to recover the public money deposited in several private banks.
“Those banks are now not in a condition to hand over the money to the ministry concerned. Now Bangladesh Bank will set a roadmap after sitting with those banks and the ministry concerned to recover the money,” Adviser Syed Rizwana Hasan said.
She said: "In my ministry, climate funds have been deposited as FDR in Padma Bank, but right now they have no capacity to bring back our money before 2038. This is an example of how our banking sector has been destroyed."
She claimed that other ministries have also experienced the same situation.
Reforms first, then election
While responding to a question, Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that several commissions have been formed to reconstruct some basic sectors of the country.
“At first, the commissions will make their proposals within three months for implementation after the dialogue with political parties. We have already had dialogues with the political parties, and they also said that they also want reforms. The election date will be announced after the reforms,” she added.