RMG workers block highway for higher pay

Hundreds of vehicles remained stranded for several hours on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at Kanchpur point yesterday as about 38,000 garment workers of a factory took to the street demanding increase of their salary and other benefits.

The untold suffering of the passengers started to ease only when the agitators withdrew their blockade after an assurance of wage hike from the owner of Sinha Group around 1:00pm, sources said.

During the agitation, they also vandalised at least 10 vehicles and burnt tyres that created smoke and added to the woes of local people and the passengers.

The normal business activities were also hampered severely for the barricade, as Kanchpur is an intersection of at least 20 routes, including Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Comilla, Dhaka-Noakhali, Dhaka-Narsingdi and Dhaka-Narayanganj.

Sources said at least 38,000 workers from Sinha Group barricaded the road around 7:30 am to press home their demand for minimum wage of Tk 5,000 and increasing “attendance bonus” from Tk 300 to Tk 400 per month.

At last, around noon, police and Rab personnel rushed in and brought the situation under control.

"I had to sit in the bus for five hours to come to my office at Kanchpur from Dhaka as all vehicles got stranded for hours due to the barricade," said an official of a steel and re-rolling factory near the factories of Sinha Group.

A worker of the group said they have been demanding the wage and attendance bonus since long, but the authorities did not pay heed to it.

"But at last the owner agreed to increase the attendance bonus," said the worker requesting anonymity.

Talking to The Daily Star, Chairman of Sinha Group Anisur Rahman Sinha said he has assured the workers for increasing the attendance bonus up to Tk 400 per month. He said the company will also allow genuine leaves to the workers.

"The outsiders also influenced the workers to make the whole matter volatile," Sinha said adding it is difficult to say exactly how much loss the group sustains for production halt in a day.

Sinha Group is the largest garment factory in the country, which employs more than 60,000 workers. It has garment factories also at the city's Mirpur, he said.

"The problem is that the international buyers lose their confidence on the country for such kind of unexpected labour unrest. The buyers also look for alternative destinations when such unrest takes place in the factories," Sinha said.

Officer-in-charge of Sonargaon Police Station Mohammad Yunus Ali said no case was filed with the police in this connection.

Earlier on April 10 workers' unrest took place in the factory for realising the same demand.