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Download PDF Several thousand garment workers staged fierce demonstrations against sudden closure of a factory in Tejgaon Industrial Area yesterday.
They rampaged through the city’s industrial hub, damaging 20 factories and other establishments soon after they found out about the shutting down of the Nassa Mainland factory.
Tension has been simmering over the last couple of days with the workers clamouring for increases in iftar allowance and Eid bonus.
But it all reached fever pitch yesterday morning as the authorities responded by closing the factory at Begunbari.
The demonstrations left over 50 people including several policemen injured.
The workers and other staffers of Kohinoor Chemicals, Sepal Garments Ltd and Orion Pharmaceuticals Ltd attacked the demonstrators smashing glasses of their factories.
Several policemen were injured, trying to disperse the workers locked in fight. They showed restraint and chased only the marauding workers, police officials said.
Two army personnel suffered wounds during stone-throwing between two groups of workers in front of Sepal Garments Ltd.
Police arrested three workers during the melee. No case was filed as of filing this report at 11:00pm.
Earlier, several hundred army and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) personnel were drafted in to control the situation after around 3,000 workers belonging to four garment units of the Nassa Group flew into a rage on seeing the shutdown notice at around 8:30am.
Owners closed down all factories in Tejgaon area fearing domino effect of the worker unrest.
Vehicular movement on the Tongi Diversion Road remained suspended for three hours beginning from 9:00am as the agitating workers barricaded the otherwise teeming thoroughfare.
The protesters sat along the stretch between Shaatrasta intersection and Mohakhali bus terminal.
In processions, they went to other factories and asked fellow workers to join the protests. But as the authorities did not allow their workers, the demonstrators ran amok, smashing windowpanes of the factories.
Kohinoor Chemicals, Nassa group’s head office and the closed Nassa Mainland, Sunshine Knitwear, a factory of Hamim group, Focus Garments, Associates Garments, Orion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Power Pack Volvo and Sepal Garment are among the factories damaged.
The workers turned even more violent following a rumour that three of their fellows had died as a bus hired for carrying workers of Sepal Garments Ltd and WASA staff ran them over near Nabisco crossing.
In effect, the three workers suffered minor injuries when the driver of the bus chased by some unruly workers lost control and hit them.
Immediately afterwards, the workers torched the bus and damaged glasses of at least eight other buses parked in the area.
Employees of the closed factory said they came to work at 7:00am. But they found the gate locked while a notice hanging on it.
Signed by the Nassa group’s Managing Director Nazrul Islam Swapan, the notice read, “Four units of the garment factory have been declared closed for an indefinite period from 6:00am today under section 13/1 of Bangladesh Labour Act-2004.”
It also mentioned that the workers did not join their work in the last two days constituting a breach of the labour law.
The attendance registrar however showed that most of the workers worked on Friday. “I worked from 7:00am to 3:30pm yesterday [Friday],” Abdul Karim, a machine operator, told The Daily Star. His attendance card corroborates his claim.
The units that have been declared closed are Nassa Knit Ltd, Nassa Apparels Ltd (unit-2), Starlight Knitwear Ltd (unit-2) and Western Dresses Ltd.
The closure followed Thursday’s demonstrations for an increase in iftar allowance and Eid bonus.
The same day the workers went to the group’s head office on Mohakhali-Gulshan Link Road and placed a memorandum calling on the factory authorities to increase the Eid bonus to 85 percent of their basic, iftar allowance to Tk 25 from present Tk 5, monthly attendance bonus to Tk 300 from Tk 100. Besides, they sought assurance that none of them would be sacked or subjected to any other harassment.
In reply, the owners said they would reach an amicable solution through discussion.
But then on Friday, the MD came to the factory and announced that he would neither raise the iftar allowance or Eid bonus, rather he would cease to run the factory since what he claimed was the workers had walked out on their job lately.
Meanwhile, police sources said when their officials were trying to mediate between the owners and the workers yesterday morning, MD Nazrul Islam Swapan wrote to the concerned police station, seeking security for he was going to shut the factory, said police sources.
The Nassa group authorities also requested the police to suppress the workers movement for two days and by the time they would get the workers to resume work.
Deputy Commissioner of Tejgaon Zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Mahbubur Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday that they had requested the factory owner to settle down the issue through negotiations but to no effect.
“We asked them to resolve the issue to avoid untoward incident. But they said they were not bound to have talks with the workers,” said a top police official seeking anonymity.
He added that when they urged the authorities to pay the workers their arrears before shutting down the factory, but the factory executives said they would disburse the outstanding salaries sometime in future and a notice would be issued to that effect.
Police sources said the incident took place due to arrogance on the owner’s side.
A number of affected workers said the owner used to force them to work in inhuman conditions. They alleged that factory officials would forfeit a significant part of the salary and overtime bill if a worker takes rest even for a minute during working hours.
“They treat us very badly and give us severe beating even for a minor mistake,” said a worker wishing not to be named.
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Ramzan a blissful month marred by maladministration of Factory owners.
This is a modern world, every worker must feel belonging to the organisation they work.
Owners are the Financial investors of industries
& the workers are the managers of the institution concerned.
The owners must maintain healthy relationship with the workers.
If I were an Industruialist, I would have supplied Iftaries free of cost & I would have declared EID Bonus for all forgoing the profit for a month.
Was it not prudent procedures to hold quarterly meetings with workers for mutual understaduings &
obtaining suggestions from the workers Supervisors.
Industrials stubbornes & lac of administrative abilities disreputed& ruined many commercial
enterprises in the past.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Sub:Full contact details with e-mail address for Nassa Group.
Dear Sir,
I will be very gratefull if you pls provide me full contact details with e-mail address for Nassa Group.
Best regards,
Nowroz Ahmed