The authorities of Dacca Dyeing Garments Ltd, a concern of Palmal Group, on Tuesday terminated 152 workers as they took a move to form trade union in the factory, workers alleged. The factory authorities, however, denied the allegation and said that they have terminated some extra work force as the factory’s export orders declined in recent months. Workers alleged that more than one hundred officials of the head office of Palmal group along with police, the BGMEA officials and the officials of factory inspection department entered the factory located at Moghbazar in the city at about 10:30am. ‘The employee of the head office and police started calling the listed workers from several floors of the factory building and forced them to receive an amount and put their signature on a blank paper,’ said Md Alam, president of the proposed trade union of the Dacca Dyeing Garments Ltd. He said that without showing any reason the factory authority used police to compel them to receive an amount as termination benefit. The total number of workers in the factory was around 1,000 before the termination. ‘Like other working days I was on work and at one stage the management called me and asked me to go to office room. When I reached the office, the officials forcibly took my signature on several papers and paid the wages for the month of October and other dues and forcefully pushed me out of the factory,’ said Alam Gazi, an iron man of Dhaka Dyeing Ltd. During the termination of workers, the women and manpower affairs secretary of Bangladesh Mohila Awami League Lima Ferdaus was present at the office of the factory. Introducing herself as a leader of workers federation, Lima asked all the workers who were fired by the factory authority to receive an amount as benefit and to leave the factory peacefully, workers said. ‘All the 16 workers who held posts in the proposed trade union, the list of which has been submitted to the office of joint labour director for registration, have been terminated,’ said Al Mamun, quality controller of the factory. He said that the factory authority was putting pressure on the workers for a couple of months for not to form trade union in the factory. The company terminated those workers who signed in the application of trade union, said Al Mamun, also the joint secretary of the proposed union. Only for the involvement of workers in the initiative of trade union, the factory owners fired them, alleged Sritee Akter Sahida, general secretary of the Garments Federation of Worker Solidarity. She said that the workers of the factory submitted all the documents for pre-registration of trade union but the department of labour rejected their application without showing any reason. ‘The joint labour directorate rejected our application thrice as they are linked with the owner,’ Sritee said. Mahatab Uddin, Director of Palmal Group, told New Age that they terminated some extra workforce from the factory as per the law. Denying the allegation over trade union issue, he said that the authority was not aware who were involved with the process of forming trade union. Mahatab said that they had been forced to cut the workforce in the face of recent decline in export orders.
