bdnews24.com , Chittagong :
Several hundred workers of a garment factory at Love Lane area in the city on Monday blocked road for festival bonus ahead of Eid causing traffic congestion for a couple of hours.
The workers of Maggie and Liz Corporation (Pvt) Limited took to the streets and blocked Nur Ahmed Road under Kotwali police station for two hours. Later, they agreed to withdraw the road blockade at around 2:30pm after getting assurance of festival bonus from the authorities.
“We demanded to the factory authorities to pay off festival bonus within July 24. However, the authorities did not pay any heed to our demand and told us that we would get the bonus on 26 July,” said a worker wishing to remain anonymous.
“We also demanded 50 per cent festival bonus on the total salary but the authorities decided to give 50 per cent bonus on the basic salary.
Moreover, the authorities said that workers who have not completed one year term in the factory would not get festival bonus”, said another worker of the factory.
“We pay off the monthly salary regularly and have no salary arrears.
However, there are some workers inside the factory who are provoked their fellows for road block,” said Enamul Aziz Chowdhury, Chief executive officer of Maggie and Liz Corporation (Pvt) Limited.
Jahangir Alam, Patrol Inspector of Kotwali Police Station told The Independent that they sat in a negotiation meeting with the factory authorities, agitating workers, BGMEA representative and members of Industrial police.
“I think some sort of misunderstanding grew between the factory authorities and the workers.
However, the factory authorities agreed to comply with the demands of the agitating workers,” said Arifur Rahman, inspector, Industrial Police (Intelligence Wing), Chittagong.
