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Download PDF Several hundred garment workers yesterday took to Rokeya Sarani at Sheorapara in the capital and blockaded the busy street for the entire day in support of their 12-point demand including timely payment of their salary and overtime allowance.
The sudden blockade snapped vehicular movement on the street from 8:00am to 9:00pm. The agitating workers withdrew their programmes around 9:00pm when they struck a deal with officials of the factories. The blockade caused gridlocks all over Mirpur area during the morning and evening rush hours.
Factory staffs concerned said encouraged by the successful demonstrations of the workers of SQ Group in the first week of this month, the workers of nearby Outwear Fashion Ltd, Outright Fashion Ltd and Outfit Unit-2 started demonstrating on the street from 8:00am. Workers of several nearby factories joined them later on.
Witnesses said workers of Outright Fashion Ltd started the demonstration at 8:00am. Later, the workers of several other garment factories including two of the same group joined them.
They paraded the street and chanted slogans in support of their demands. The workers also organised rallies on the street.
Sources said several garment factories in the area were closed during the demonstration and a few agitating workers pelted some factories with brickbats when workers of those factories refused to join their agitation programme. A huge number of policemen were deployed in the troubled area.
Their 12-point demand include payment of salary and overtime by the first week of every month, fixing the duty time for workers from 8:00am to 7:00pm, if workers are asked to work after 7:00pm the factory has to provide food for them, providing weekly day-off, providing 100 percent of a month’s salary as annual bonus, a stop to all whimsical termination of workers and the factory has to pay three months and 13 days’ salary along with all due overtime allowances when firing a worker.
The other demands are night allowance for workers on night duty, a stop to torture of workers and the use of offensive language against them by their superiors, maternity leave with three months’ pay for female workers and a stop to the termination of demonstrating workers.
“Most of the garment factories are providing their workers with all these facilities, but the owner of the three factories never bothered to provide us the facilities,” said a worker wishing not to be named.
Bangladesh Garments Manufacturer and Exporters Association (BGMEA) leaders and the garment factory management and workers’ leaders sat at the BGMEA Bhaban last evening to resolve the issue. In the afternoon, members of joint forces went to Sheorapara and took 30 demonstrating workers to the meeting.
The garment factory management promised the workers at the meeting that wages would be paid by the 7th of every month, overtime allowances by the 15th and the factory would provide food for the workers working overtime.
On January 2 and 3 workers of SQ Sweater Ltd and other factories staged demonstrations on the same street and finally withdrew their agitation programme after the owner accepted their demands.
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