Our Correspondent :
Workers of SQ Celsius Ltd. have gone on strike in the Beraiderchala area of Sreepur in Gazipur to meet various demands, including low wages and disrespectful treatment of workers by officials.
They demonstrated peacefully in front of the main gate of the factory without attending work on Sunday morning. Later in the afternoon, the workers called off strike and the factory was declared closed for one day.
The sudden reduction of wages, non-payment of extra wages, not providing lunch, supplies of substandard tiffins to workers and mistreatment of workers inside the factory have created dissatisfaction among the workers.
The factory promotes following international standards at different times, the workers in the factory do not have the least respect. The owners have also hired a few locals in the human resources department. They are accused of intimidating workers in various ways, harassing women workers and abusing them. The workers want to remove the dishonest officials of the factory after investigation.
Khairul Islam, a worker in the packing department of the factory, said, “The authorities have suddenly reduced our wages without any announcement. In the current situation, it is difficult for us to bear the expenses of family. How can we survive by the reduce salary.”
Farid Miah, a worker in the linking department, said, “They are giving us wages for 10 hours against 14 hours of work.
Workers are also made to work on holidays. Workers are not paid for overtime work.
They create obstacles in many ways to pay the wages of labor. Protests show threats and intimidation of dismissal. There is no proper working environment in this factory now.”
In this regard, Kazi Iqbal Hossain, an official of the human resources department of the factory, said that the demands of the workers are reasonable.
“We talked with them and the annual bonus money will be paid tomorrow. We have also talked to them about other demands.”
Assistant Superintendent of Police, Gazipur Industrial Area, Ruhul Amin said, “The workers have been protesting in the factory since morning with various demands. They later spoke to authorities about their demands. They have promised to accept the logical demands. Workers are expected to join the factory from tomorrow morning.”
