Businesses could pay their workers Tk 30,000 to 40,000 if they did not have to hand money to various government offices, Masuduzzaman Masud, a former president of the Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has said. If a one-stop service could be ensured, he said, owners could gain the means to raise workers’ pay and allowances.
He spoke at an emergency meeting on the labour unrest held at the chamber building in the city’s Chandmari area on Thursday afternoon. The meeting was chaired by Mostafizur Rahman Bhuiyan Dipu, the MP for Narayanganj-1 and president of the chamber.
“Wherever a paper is needed, we have to pay money,” Masud said. “Paying so much has pushed owners’ backs to the wall. We have to pay hundreds of thousands, tens of millions of taka a year. Businesses could have given that money to my workers.”
He said some leaders have raised a demand for Tk 30,000. That would be set by the wage board, or the wage board would be formed with that in mind. Without allowing that time, he said, some 67 to 68 factories were attacked, vandalised and set on fire the day before, and “we have learned of various kinds of conspiracy and incitement behind it”.
Masud said it had not been the businesses’ aim to put down the workers’ movement, and that a coordinated message and cooperation from the political parties had been needed to bring the situation under control.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report