Workers held him hostage at office for Eid bonus
Garment workers of Tuba Group finally drew out their Eid bonus yesterday after holding the owner, Delwar Hossain, hostage for over 17 hours.
They released Delwar around 2:30am from his office at North Badda’s Hossain Market in the presence of policemen, said Iqbal Hossain, officer-in-charge of Badda Police Station.
Delwar, also owner of Tazreen Fashions Ltd at Ashulia, where 112 workers died in a deadly fire last November, has three garment units in Hossain Market.
He had been held by workers on the third floor and let go after the management of the factories paid off bonuses to their workers.
Law enforcers were present there at that time to prevent any untoward situation.
The authorities closed the garment units around 3:00pm on Friday, a little earlier than usual, saying there was less work for the day, said a worker of Tuba Textile, one of the three factories, wishing anonymity.
“The next morning when we came to work we saw there was no machine on the third and fourth floors. We heard that the owner had sold the machines,” he said.
When Delwar went to the market around 8:30am on the day, workers asked him about Eid bonus. He told them he did not have money and so would not be able to give them bonus, the garment worker added.
Enraged by this, the workers locked Delwar in his office.
“We heard that the factories would be closed and were worried that many of us would be laid off and that the rules of discharge would not be followed.”
The agitating workers demanded that the authorities assure them of their jobs and in case of a worker being fired, he should be paid his salary, bonus and other benefits as per the rules.
Police, Delwar’s relatives and representatives of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), then tried to negotiate his release with the workers.
When he signed a bond promising that he would follow the rules if he shut down the factories and started disbursing bonus, he was finally allowed to leave the office.
Workers of another garment unit of Tuba group in Uttar Badda’s Fuji Tower also demonstrated demanding Eid bonus.
They confined the factory manager, Abdul Malek, to the unit around 11:00pm on Saturday. On receiving their Eid bonus, the workers released him.
Babul Akhter, president of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, told The Daily Star that the owner of Tuba Group had sold off machines in the dark of the night because he intended not to pay bonuses to the workers.
The machines on the third and fourth floors of the market had been sold off since the authorities wanted to shift the units from the rented floors, said Human Resource Manager Jannat Fatema of the group.
The group had garment units occupying eight floors of the building. The remaining six floors — from seventh to 12th — are of its own, said Fatema.
Delwar could not be reached by phone.
Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of BGMEA, a platform of garment makers, said there had been a misunderstanding between the management and workers over salary disbursement.
“Someone spread that the owner would disburse salaries to the officers first and then the workers. This was the reason behind the demonstration,” Azim said.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
