At least 80 people were injured as ready-made garment workers clashed with police and ruling party activists and blocked Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka Mymensingh highways and Dhaka streets demanding a hike in the minimum wage on Tuesday.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association threatened to close the factories under Section 13/1 of the Bangladesh Labour Law without paying.
Labour leaders blamed factory owners for the chaotic situation.
Workers from different industrial hubs have been demonstrating for Tk 23,000 as the minimum wage since factory owners proposed Tk 10,400 as the minimum wage in the past week.
The last minimum wage was reviewed in 2018 and set at Tk 8,000 for entry-level workers, up from Tk 5,300 in 2013.
Trade union leaders said that the unjust proposal had aggrieved workers, prompting them to take to the streets.
At least two workers were killed on Monday in Gazipur as the unrest spread to more factories.
Police identified one of the deceased as Eman Ali, a worker at the burnt ABM Fashion Ltd and son of Zahidul Islam, a resident of Cumilla.
Russell Hawlader, 25, a worker at Design Express Ltd, a sister concern of Energypac Group in Gazipur, was also killed on Monday.
Trade union leaders condemned the deaths of workers and demanded compensation for them.
New Age correspondent in Gazipur reported that at least 30 people were injured in clashes with police on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway in the Kaliakair area.
Miscreants set fire to a police traffic box at Chandra, a police van, and an electronic goods showroom of Walton Group, and vandalised several others.
Additional superintendent of the Gazipur industrial police, Md Moinul Haque, said that agitated workers blocked a busy highway, disrupting traffic movement in the morning.
Police fired teargas shells and sound grenades and charged batons to disperse workers from the road.
The agitated workers pelted stones, vandalised many vehicles and set fire to some public and private properties, he said. Police inspector Mir Rakibul Haque said that over 150 garment factories in unrest-prone areas shut down their units on Tuesday.
Police said that in Gazipur, workers of Fortis Group, Purbani Garments, ATS Apparels, and Lavender Garments demonstrated, among others.
In Dhaka, several thousand factory workers blocked the streets at Mirpur-11 to press their demand for a better wage.
The workers were returning to the respective factories at one stage upon assurance from authorities over the pay hike, only for some ruling party activists to allegedly attack them, injuring many, the
workers said.
Sima Khatun, an operator of the factory, said that the people who attacked workers with bamboo and iron sticks had links with the ruling party, as they saw them in the locality.
Police and factory owners denied commenting on the allegation.
Witnesses said that miscreants vandalised 15 buses, 2 markets, a bank branch, and 2 garment factories after clashes erupted among garment workers, Awami League activists, and the police.
Pallabi police station sub-inspector Mahfuzur Rahman said that rumours over the death of a worker added fuel to the unrest.
Several thousand garment workers from at least five different factories took to the streets demanding a wage hike and protesting attacks on fellow workers.
Epyllion Group managing director Reaz Uddin Al Mamoon said that a group of outsiders entered the factory to attack workers and vandalise the factory, leaving dozens injured.
He said that at least 25 workers were injured in the incident. The factory later declared a general holiday for two days, shutting down production.
At least 5,000 workers work in two units of the group located in Mirpur.
Witnesses said that as the Epyllion Group workers were attacked, fellow workers of nearby Dekko Knitwears Ltd, Apollo Knit Wear (BD) Ltd. and Anamica Concord garment workers joined the workers around 10:00am and blocked city roads.
In Savar, Envoy Garment, Pioneer, Fashion Forum, Palmal Group, Nasa Group, and Shahrier garment workers demonstrated for a wage hike.
At least 25 workers were given first aid, and seven injured workers were given treatment at the local Mother and Child Healthcare Institute in Ashulia.
BGMEA president Faruque Hassan said at a press briefing held at the headquarters of the trade body in Uttara, Dhaka, on Tuesday that almost every day the factories were getting closed because of the ongoing unrest.
If the situation prevails and if the workers decline to continue production, the factory owners could shut down the units under Section 13/1, which states that no work, no pay,’ Faruque said.
He alleged that outsiders were attacking and vandalising factories and instigating factory workers to stage demonstrations over a wage hike.
The IndustriALL Bangladesh Council has blamed garment factory owners for the ongoing labour unrest in different industrial areas of the country in demand of a wage hike.
At a press conference in the capital’s Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Tuesday, Amirul Haque Amin, the president of the trade union platform, said that factory owners’ representatives to the minimum wage board proposed an unjust wage for workers that aggrieved workers.
The wage board, which was formed in April, wasted unnecessary time fixing the minimum wage, he said.
Bangladesh exported garment products worth $47 billion in the past financial year, behind only China in the global market.
New Age
