Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Nayeb-e-Ameer and former Member of Parliament, Professor Mujibur Rahman said that housing, food, clothing, education, and healthcare—these five basic rights—are the entitlement of every person.

However, the working class of our country is deprived of these five rights. It is the responsibility of the government and the employers to ensure these rights so that workers can live with dignity like human beings. These rights are the legitimate entitlements of the working class. He called upon everyone to come forward to ensure these rights for workers.

He made these remarks on the afternoon of 7 January while exchanging views with a five-member delegation led by Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director of the National Advocacy Alliance for Workers’ Rights and former head of the BILS Labour Reform Commission, who had come to discuss workers’ rights with him. Among others, General Secretary of Bangladesh Labour Federation and General Secretary of BILS Shakil Akhtar Chowdhury, Acting President of Bangladesh Sramik Federation Md. Zakir Hossain; General Secretary of Bangladesh Sramik Federation A. M. Foyez Hossain; President of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal Anwar Hossain; and Senior Program Officer Monirul Kabir were present on the occasion.

Professor Mujibur Rahman further said that if the employers act justly towards the working class, there will be no disparity between workers and owners. If workers receive their fair dues, they will carry out their duties responsibly, which will create a peaceful and production-oriented environment in factories. Then both workers and owners will live in peace.

Islam teaches that what you eat, you should feed to those under your responsibility, and the clothes you wear, you should provide the same to them. If this principle is implemented, both workers and employers will attain peace in this world as well as in the Hereafter. Everyone must work with a sense of accountability before the court of the Hereafter. Workers are being used merely as stepping-stones to power, and after gaining power they are deprived of their rights. This must be stopped. In the upcoming election, every political party must clearly declare in its election manifesto how it will ensure the basic rights of workers.

Thanking Professor Mujibur Rahman for giving them time, Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, said that the existing disparity between workers and employers must be removed by ensuring workers’ fair rights.

He added that politics of balanced development must be introduced in line with international labor laws. Acts such as vandalism in factories occur because workers are deprived of their rights. If workers are given their rightful entitlements, labor unrest will be eliminated. The issue of workers’ fair rights must be raised both inside and outside the National Parliament.