Staff Reporter :
Peace has apparently returned to Bangladesh’s garments sector after more than a month and half of unrest over the new wage structure.
No unrest was reported from anywhere of Dhaka, Ashulia and Savar on Tuesday.
Workers were seen entering factories before 8:00am to join daily work. All closed factories had reopened.
Sana Shaminur Rahman, superintendent of Dhaka Industrial Police told reporters, the factories have opened and workers returned to work peacefully.
Additional police forces were seen outside most of the factories in order to maintain discipline. Security was beefed up inside the factories as well.
Police were also in loudspeakers, urging the workers to go back to work. “If you do not join work, you will not be paid”.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the factories have started to sack workers. Local reporters found lists of terminated workers on the main gates of two factories.
A total of 800 workers have been terminated, a union leader told our Savar correspondent.
However, during the agitation of the readymade garment (RMG) workers in the last few days, factories which used to pay on time, offered all other facilities were vandalised, which shocked the owners.
They said, that their factories were ransacked to get wider publicity for the agitation of the garment workers.
Since publicity cannot be assured by attacking unknown factories, the bigger ones were targeted, claimed the owners. In the last couple of days, factories of established groups like Hamim, Envoy and Pall Mall were vandalised.
Hamim Group is owned by former President of FBCCI AK Azad, while Envoy Group by MP and former President of BGMEA, Salam Murshedy.
This time, the factories of Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi also came under attack.
RMG workers vandalised vehicles, clashed with police during the protest over discrepancies in the new wage structure.
Salam Murshedy said, “By vandalising these factories, they wanted more publicity in the media and some of the factories attacked belongrd to people close to the government.”
“In our factories, workers are paid on time with increments, bonus and other facilities, but the vandalism is done by workers of other factories.”
“Workers in my factory were forcibly prevented from working; I could have taken help from the police, but since I am a minister, I refused to do that and was a spectator to the vandalism,” added Tipu Munshi.
Commerce Minister and State Minister for Labour said that the movements were infiltrated by outsiders.
Meanwhile, several sources of the Home Ministry said that the police were looking for those who instigated the workers.
