Miseries of the workers in the country’s apparel sector seem to be a never-ending tale though the government, BGMEA and two major apex forums of international buyers – Accord and Alliance – are working to improve compliance standards by eliminating discrimination and harassment to the workers after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. Most recently, some 1300 workers and low-grade support staff of a Chinese investor-owned readymade garment unit located at Dakshin Khan area in the capital did not received their salaries and bonuses before the Eid-ul-Fitr. The government and the BGMEA leaders knew it, but there was no strong initiative in favour of the workers. As a result, workers and employees of the factory almost had to starve during the festival along with their family members. The case of mid-aged Hazrat Ali and his wife Raseda was unlike others. On June 29, the land lord beat and drove them out from their rented house as they failed to pay the rent. Their four-member family was later given shelter by another house owner nearby. The family is now almost starving. “What I would say! They (owners) are rich and are easily spared from legal actions,” a frustrated Hazrat told this correspondent at National Press Club premises, where he came to join a sit-in programme of the Swan Garment workers. Workers of Swan Garment have been observing sit-in at in front of National Press Club over the last 14 days demanding arrears and on Saturday vowed to wage greater movement like labour strike to press home their demands. The tale is about Swan Garments, owned by a Chinese citizen named Yuen Ming Hon alias Tobi Hon, once produced RMG goods for world’s top 15 retailers including Wal-Mart, Best Seller, Mackays, Dunnes Stores, Corona, Macy’s, LIDL, Next and Footlocker. The factory that started production in 1984 was suddenly shut down on April 10 without informing the workers. The factory ran its production for the last day on April 7 and the management then asked the workers not to come to work on April 8 and April 9. The workers went to the factory on April 10 only to find out that the factory was under lock and key with none of the management people around there. Workers then doubted that the head of the management Mokhlesur Rahman was the executor of such sudden closure of the factory. According to workers’ allegation, Mokhlesur often misbehaved with them, deprived them of leave and annual earned leave benefits. Just before the Eid, hundreds of workers of Swan Garments staged demonstration on the streets demanding salaries and bonuses, but their demonstration yielded no results. A series of meetings were held over the Swan Garment issue till last Thursday, but the workers have not been paid yet. Many workers have become mentally tormented after losing their jobs out of the blue. Meanwhile, leaders of trade unions went to Accord and Alliance offices seeking interference to deliver justice to the Swan Garment workers, but the officials of the two leading buyers’ platforms did not cooperated. “I went to them. They told us that they have nothing to do. They said their business is to work on workers’ safety issue and factory compliances,” said Kazi Ruhul Amin, general secretary of Garments Sramik Trade Union Kendra, a platform of the RMG sector workers. He said the owner of a garment factory has the right to shut down his or her factory, but the workers must be paid their dues before the owner does so. “We are trying to make the government and BGMEA understand this issue. We still hope that they will pay heed to our demands,” he said. He also alleged that false cases have been lodged implicating workers. The entire global media has reported on Bangladesh’s progress in workplace safety issues at the RMG industry as Accord and Alliance spent lots of money to this means following repeated incidents of disasters like fire and building collapses. The US, ILO and other international rights bodies also praised the progress made in the apparel sector, but some awful tales of the misery of the workers seem to be never-ending. “Significant progress has been made. And, you should do more,” the US Trade Representative observed recently. Swan Garment was a family business run by Tobi Hon. He suddenly died on April 22 following closure of the RMG unit on April 10. He, however, cleared the salaries of workers for the month of March on April 16. Deceased Hon’s two wives are directors of the RMG unit. He has another Sweater factory at Dokkhinkhan area, which is running well. But, workers could not reach Hon’s wives. Sources said Hon’s first wife Patricia is planning to reopen the factory by taking loan from Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. Meanwhile, the ministry of labor formed a nine-member committee headed by the Director General of Department of Factory Inspection on July 8 to find ways to resolve the issue. The committee didn’t hold any meeting before Eid-ul-Fitr. On Thursday last, the committee sat for discussion and pledged the agitating Swan Garment Workers of a solution by next Tuesday. “We are now looking for the decision of the committee,” Ruhul Amin said. ddressing the sit-in programme, eminent journalist Syed Abul Maksud called upon all including the government to act immediately to pay the Swan Garment workers. “It is inhuman to left the workers without any pay before Eid,” he said. Trade union leaders Joinal Abedin, Joly Talukder, Md Shahjahan, Nurul Islam, Sheikh Farid and Minoti Rani addressed the sit-in programme among others.
