PM Hasina calls for good worker-owner relationship on May Day

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged factory workers and owners to maintain good relations to keep the wheel of production rolling.

She was speaking at the labour and employment ministry’s May Day discussion on Sunday.

“We need a good worker-owner relation to raise production,” she said.

The prime minister said the both sides would benefit from the good relationship.

“The owners should always keep in mind that production will be good if the workers get a fine workplace. The workers will work happily. The owners will get profit if production increases,” she said.

“Workers also have the responsibility to keep their factories open as a source of their living,” Hasina said.

“Therefore the both sides have a responsibility. They all should have this sense of duty,” she said.

“We want good worker-owner relationship, the wheels of production to keep running, and our country to prosper,” she added.

Representatives of workers and owners were present at the discussion.

Hasina also recalled the background of May Day, the historic day epitomising workers’ struggle for their rights, and spoke about her government’s effort to ensure workers’ welfare.

“I think it’s our duty to work for workers' welfare. If we want development, we will have to build factories, create jobs and establish workers’ rights,” she said.

“This is because goods are created by their labour, sweat, and they play a role in country’s economy through production,” she added.

The prime minister said her Awami League government raised workers’ wages, provided housing facilities, built hospitals for them, helped workers injured in workplaces and the families of those who died in workplace accidents, and arranged stipend for their children.

About the steps she took on her own initiative to raise the garment factory workers’ wage, she said, “I was the only bargaining agent of the workers.”

“The workers didn’t come to me. I did it after discussing the issue with the owners,” she said.

“You don’t need to come to me with demands because I myself know what to do,” she added.

Hasina said the minimum wage in the readymade garment sector, the country's top exporter, was re-fixed at Tk 5,000.

She thanked the garment factory owners for ‘keeping their promise’.

Bangladesh has around 4 million workers in this sector, but they do not have a trade union to bargain with the owners.

She also recalled protesting workers being killed in police firing during BNP’s 1991-96 tenure and condemned the incident.

She said her government was building 100 Economic Zones and urged the entrepreneurs to invest in them.

Hasina said her government was also taking care of safety at workplaces, besides adopting other welfare measures for workers.