WORKERS of an apparel factory on the Ashulia outskirt of the capital city, reported to have been abstaining from work for several days, had blocked the Dhaka鈥揟angail Highway on January 13 for five hours, which majorly disrupted traffic. The workers are reported to be pushing for the demand for job termination benefits. The law enforcement agencies used water cannons and charged at the protesters with truncheons to clear the area and ease traffic movement. The workers say that the factory management suspended them and served notices on 453 workers to explain the unrest at the factory that took place in the past week. The management says that it served the notice on the workers in January 9鈥�12 keeping to Section 23 of the labour law that deals with punishment for misconduct and conviction and the workers have been on demonstration demanding job termination benefits keeping to Section 26 of the labour law that deals with the termination of the employment of workers by employers otherwise than by dismissal, etc. A labour leader says that a tripartite negotiation has settled the issue and the owners, who employ 16,000 workers in several of the factories, have agreed to pay the benefits to the workers.
The factory management, however, seeks to say that the workers, who were invited to a feast for the wedding of a member of the owners鈥� family that had a mismanaged serving of food, went on demonstrations and vandalised the factory. The management says that some leaders provoked the workers even after they had been assured of a proper serving of the food. The management on January 11 filed a case against three of the workers. This serving of food story could very well be an owners鈥� ploy to lessen the gravity of the failure of the management or this could also be a tipping point of the of the workers鈥� dissatisfaction that they have worked with in the factory. Such a failure on part of apparel factory management is a well-known issue and the repression of apparel workers continues even after meetings, decisions and measures that have taken place one after another. What ultimately remains beyond such stories is the deprivation that the workers continue to face. Yet, nothing definitive has taken place to stop the exploitation of and repression on the workers. And, the primary onus for all such failures and the unrest that gives birth to the unrest falls more on the owners, who almost always bring up an excuse to cover their failure, and the government, which almost always sides with the owners in protecting their interests.
The problem of worker unrest over payment in apparel factories, which has been taking place year after year, may not be resolved unless the government becomes serious enough about protecting the rights of the workers and disciplining the owners of apparel factories. It is time that the government decisively dealt with the issue, rising above owners鈥� interests, to end the menace once and for all.