BANGLADESH NEWS
Four days of unrest in the readymade garment zone in Ashulia has calmed down following a tripartite meeting among Ha-Meem group authorities, labour leaders and government representatives on Thursday.
Following the meeting, the agitating workers returned to their homes. Police deployments have not been withdrawn from the area, though.
Several resolutions were agreed in the meeting mediated by State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku, who represented the government.
Contacted, Brig Gen (retd) Mohammad Ali Mondal, director of the project in Ashulia of Ha-Meem Group, told that the workers will receive the increment in demand from July.
The owners will bear the workers’ treatment expenses of injuries incurred during the clashes and their wages for the last four days will not be deducted, informed Mondal.
Also, the workers were promised that the government will monitor so that their house rents in Ashulia do not go up further. Lawmaker Towhid Jong Murad of Dhaka-19 (Savar) will oversee this matter, he added.
Worker leaders told our correspondent that their overtime fees will be increased, but the amount has not been disclosed.
The leaders said they normally receive yearly increments and their wages were never deducted in past incidents of clash, there is nothing unique about this.
They mainly demand a new pay scale. Currently, a garment worker gets between Tk 3,000 and 5,500 a month.
Our correspondent covering the event reports that over 4,000 law enforcers deployed in the area brought the situation under control around 11:00am and the road communications restored fully from 1:00pm.
In the backdrop of the situation, the state minister along with local lawmaker Murad Jong rushed to the Ha-Meem Group premises, from where the violence sparked four days ago, and sat for the meeting.
After the meeting, the minister asked the agitating workers to return to work.
They also appealed to the workers to calm down quoting the prime minister that she herself would look into the matter.
The day's demonstration began around 8:30am when the workers started to come to their factory.
As time passed, thousands of workers joined the agitating groups and the battle field stretched over 3 kilometres from Ashulia Bypile to Nabinagar-Kaliakoir road, said Fayezul Kabir, deputy director of Industrial Police.
At least 200 people including police were injured and production at around 350 garment factories remained suspended as the agitating workers demonstrated blocking the Dhaka-Tangail highway and Ashulia Bypile road, said Fayezul Kabir.
The agitating workers also vandalised 150 vehicles during the clash.
The law enforcers had to fire several hundred rubber bullets and lobbed nearly 200 teargas shells in a bid to disperse thousands of agitating workers.
The demonstration halted traffic movement on the roads for nearly three hours, causing immense sufferings to commuters.
The entire industrial zone turned into a battle ground as workers fought pitched battles with law enforcers demanding pay hike and also protesting police action on some fellow workers Tuesday night.
More than 4,000 law enforcers including Industrial Police, Dhaka District Police, Rapid Action Battalion and Range Reserve Force have been deployed in the whole industrial area to bring the situation under control.
Earlier on Wednesday, Labour and Employment Minister Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said all the garment factories in the violence-hit Ashulia will remain open from Thursday.
“All the garment factories in Ashulia will remain open from tomorrow. I call upon the workers to get back to work without fear,” he said after a marathon meeting with leaders of different garment workers federations and law enforcers.
It all began on Monday when about 4,500 workers of Artistic Design Ltd, a packaging factory of Ha-Meem Group owned by FBCCI President AK Azad, took to the streets demanding raise in their wages.
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