RMG workers hold protests for wages, allowance

Labour unrest continued in different apparel factories in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj on Thursday to push for the payment of their outstanding wages and festival allowance before Eid-ul-Fitr.

Several hundred workers of a factory at Dhakeshwari in Shiddhirganj blocked the Narayanganj-Adamjee road and vandalised some vehicles as they found their factory closed without being paid wages and the festival allowance.

Workers of four garments factories held protests, went

on strike and blocked highways demanding festival allowance and payment of outstanding wages in Gazipur on Thursday.

The factories are DEN Sports at Signboard, EPCOT Apparels at Naljani, Sinkee Garment Factory at Tongi, and Gomati Textiles at Safipur of Kaliakair in Gazipur.

Workers of Style Garments in North Badda also blocked the road for some time demanding their pay and festival allowance. Later, the factory owners paid their salary and the allowance.

Workers holding protests complained that they had gone to their factory, Rack Design, and found it locked up and none from the authorities was present there.

All the workers later blocked the road in front of the factory with logs and damaged some vehicles. The workers also started fire with tyres and logs. The protests continued for an hour and a half.

The police later contained the situation.

Director of the industrial police unit 4, Mahbub Alam, said that the workers had called off their protests when the superintendent of police of Narayanganj, Sheikh Nazmul Alam, assured them of finding out the owners and arranging for the payment.

Assistant subinspector Mahfuzur Rahman of the industrial police zone 2 (Gazipur) said that workers of the DNS Sports Factory had not been paid their wages for June and July.

The arrears were supposed to be paid on Thursday morning. The workers became angry and held protests as the management did not make the payment.

They blocked the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway about 11:00am. The industrial police, the highway police and the local police reached the place and contained the situation about midday as the factory management started holding talks with the workers to resolve the problem.

Workers of the Gomoti Textiles at Shafipur also stopped working to push for the payment of their wages for July and the festival allowance.

The Kaliakoir police said that the workers had vandalised the factory after locking up the main gate.

The police tired to enter the factory but the workers pelted the lawmen with stones. The workers continued their protests on the factory premises till the evening.

At Tongi, workers of Sinkee Garments Factory at noon started holding protests on BEXIMCO Road asking for their wages for July and 15 days wages for August in advance salary for August.

The factory management agreed to pay the wages for July, the festival allowance and 10 days’ wages for August in advance.