Unrest hits industries

Workers from different sectors continued their demonstrations in Ashulia, Savar, Dhamrai, and Gazipur yesterday demanding equal rights in jobs, increase in salaries, and regularisation of contractual workers.
The protests spread to the agro-processing and shoe industries yesterday, a day after workers from pharmaceuticals and readymade garment factories staged demonstrations.
The workers’ other demands include stopping of layoffs and payment of “attendance bonus”.
For the second day in a row, workers of Bata Shoe Company (Bangladesh) Ltd staged demonstrations yesterday, blocking the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Gazipur’s Tongi.
They were pressing for eight-point demand, including salary hike, monthly salaries instead of weekly wages, and stopping the termination of workers.
Protestors started demonstrating near the Bata factory around 9:00am, halting production, said Inspector Saiful Islam of Gazipur Industrial Police.
Meanwhile, job-seekers demonstrated in Ashulia demanding “proportional” hiring of men and women by the factories, according to Industrial Police.
The demonstrators blocked the Nabinagar-Chandra and Baipail-Abdullahpur roads at different points since morning.
Khandoker Rafiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said workers have been staging demons for four to five days.
Yesterday, nearly 100 factories in different industrial areas, including Ashulia and Gazipur, were shut, he added.
“Workers at five industrial parks in four districts demonstrated, demanding a minimum salary of Tk 20,000 per month, and other facilities, including leave and holidays during festivals,” said Kamruzzaman Kamal, marketing director of PRAN-RFL Group, a leading agro-processor and exporter.
He said protests broke out in Ashulia, Savar, Dhamrai and Gazipur yesterday after workers from different sectors took to the streets.
Kamruzzaman alleged that a vested group was provoking the workers. He said they were trying to solve the problems through talks.
The PRAN-RFL official said they would seek cooperation from the ministries of labour, home, and environment to solve the problem.
“We have suspended our production. We will have to stop operations if the workers do not end their protests. The demonstrations are making it impossible to operate our industrial park.”
He said the supply chain was disrupted yesterday due to the demonstrations.
Kamruzzaman warned that exports would be hampered seriously if the protests went on, which would ultimately send a negative message to foreign investors.
JOINT OPERATION TO BE LAUNCHED
Garment exporters yesterday met with Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury and Labour and Employment Adviser Asif Mahmud to discuss the overall situation.
“Our workers do not have any problems. A vested group is trying to create an unstable situation in the industrial area,” BGMEA President Khandoker Rafiqul Islam told The Daily Star over the phone after the meeting.
Quoting the home adviser, he said the army, Industrial Police and some law enforcement agencies will conduct a joint operation in Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur.
Additional police personnel will be deployed in the industrials areas from today, he added.
Rafiqul said no action will be taken against the factory workers and labour leaders.
The factory owners will monitor the situation till today, and will decide on opening factories after discussing law and order, he added.
SM Shafiuzzaman, secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries, said workers’ protests spread to over 25 pharmaceutical factories yesterday and the demonstrators vandalised at least four factories.
“We are holding meetings with the government authorities concerned … ,” he claimed.
Shafiuzzaman, also the managing director of Hudson Pharmaceuticals Ltd, said that some big factories have halted production which will have an impact on the exports and the supply of life-saving drugs to the local market.