Speakers at an exchange-of-views meeting on Friday said that the July Declaration presented on August 5 failed to properly reflect the pressing issues of workers’ rights.
Politicians, academics, labour leaders and professionals came up with their criticisms at a meeting in Dhaka city, also saying that workers’ rights were not established in the past one year’s rule of the interim government.   Â
Bangladesh Garment Sramik Samhati organised the views exchange programme ‘One -year of interim government aspirations of workers’ at the National Press Club with president of the organisation Taslima Akhter in chair.
‘The July Declaration did not effectively reflect the workers’ rights issues,’ Taslima Akhter said in her address.
Speakers at the programme also called on the government to formulate a democratic labour law before the next general election.
Labour leader and head of Labour Reform Commission Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed said that their formulation of recommendations for sector reform after holding consultation with most of the active labour rights bodies were an achievement under the interim government.
Academic Dina Siddique said the government must effectively implement the recommendations of the labour reform commission if they were really keen to realise labour rights in the country.
Speakers also said that true democracy was never possible without establishing the workers’ rights.
Politician Bachuchu Bhuiyan, Jahangirnagar University teacher Hasan Ashraf, drama artist Ritu Satter, filmmaker Akram Khan, labour leaders Mantu Ghosh, Mohammad Khorshed Alam, Mazharul Islam Fakir, Mizanur Rahim Chowdhury, Sima Das Simu, among others, also spoke at the programme.