Md. Fazlul Haque Montu, Chairperson of the International Trade Union Confederation-Bangladesh Council (ITUC-BC) and Md. Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan, Secretary General in a statement on May 16 said that the global corona virus is causing a terrible economic downturn in the world.
The informal sector workers and expatriate workers in Bangladesh have suffered the most. Although the government is providing food aid to the workers but the real sufferers are not getting proper aid, they mentioned.
They demanded the government to include workers representatives in the process of preparing and distributing the list.
In case of other industrial organizations, especially the garment sector, they demanded that wages and bonuses be paid as per the government's decision.
According to the decision of the government, employers and workers' representatives, layoffs and retrenchment should be stopped and the laid off workers should be reinstated with arrears, they added.
They said, the government had given instructions to start the factories step by step in a limited number following the compliance and health norms but the owners are not fully complying with it.
As a result, many garment workers are being infected, they mentioned. In these cases, they demanded that the treatment cost for infected workers and the appropriate compensation for deceases workers must be paid by the concerned authority.
The expatriate workers, who are stranded abroad and returning to the country are living a dehumanized life. They urged to the government and concerned officials to provide urgent assistance to these workers
