Demand garment sector labour leaders
Garment sector labour leaders on Sunday demanded that the law must be applied equally to owners and workers to ensure sound industrial relation in the sector.
In a meeting with state minister for labour and employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu at secretariat, the labour leaders alleged that a large number of workers had been arrested on charge of their involvement in unruly activities while the owner of Tazreen Fashions Ltd was not being arrested despite pressing charges against him for ‘committing homicide by negligence’ that caused a deadly fire and took 112 lives on November 24, 2012.
They demanded immediate arrest of the owners of Tazreen Fashions Ltd and Smart Export Garments Ltd.
‘It is very much unfortunate that despite pressing charges against the Tazreen owner, law enforcement agencies are yet to arrest him,’ IndustriALL Bangladesh Council general secretary Roy Ramesh Chandra said in the meeting.
Demanding full implementation of new wage structure for the garment workers, he said a good number of factories were yet to implement the new wage structure and the practice would not be helpful for the sustainable growth of the garment sector.
Nazma Akter, president of Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation, alleged that a section of garment owners, who are not willing to implement the new wage structure, was filing ‘false’ cases against the workers and at the same time running attacks on the workers by their private gangs.
‘Harassments should be stopped, otherwise, the sector will turn volatile,’ she said.
Sirajul Islam Rony, president of the Bangladesh Garments Workers Employee League, said the workers had been facing severe difficulties in the factories as well in the labour ministry over forming trade unions.
He demanded end to the harassment and easing the path of forming trade unions in the garment factories.
The state minister assured the labour leaders to solve the prevailing problems through discussions with the owners.
‘The owners and workers should come to a point to ensure interest of the sector and I will sit with the owners on January 21 to resolve the issues,’ Mujibul said.
The state minister assured that he would work to protect the interest of workers and also made a commitment to dig out the reasons of labour unrest in the garment sector.
-With New Age input
