Politicians, academics and professionals on Saturday at a discussion in the capital Dhaka said that rights of the workers were not established in the country.
Newly launched Janata Party Bangladesh organised the discussion at the National Press Club to mark May Day presided over by executive chairman of the party, Golam Sarwar Milon.
Former Dhaka University professor and president of Bangla Academy Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq said that since the workers in the country were mostly a deprived class, political parties should stress the importance of establishing rights of the workers.
Veteran labour leader and an adviser to Janata Party Shah Mohammad Abu Zafar said that their newly formed political party would work for establishing rights of the workers.
鈥業t is unfortunate that there has been no national minimum wage in our country for a long time,鈥� he said, demanding a national minimum wage of Tk 30,000 per month for workers.
The party secretary general, Shaukat Mahmood, in his introductory speech said that in the past workers played prominent roles in every movement of the country including mass uprising of 1969, War of Independence in聽 1971 and the recent student-led mass uprising, but their rights were not established.
Journalist Kazi Abdul Hannan, central leaders of the Janata Party Farhad Mahbub, Rafiqul Haque, Asaduzzaman, Nazmul Ahsan, ABM Oliur Rahman, Zakir Hossain, Syed Azizunnesa, Nirmal Chakrabarty and others spoke at the discussion.
The Janata Party Bangladesh was launched a week ago at a hotel in the capital electing actor Ilias Kanchan as its chairman.
