Manufacturing activities at the readymade garments (RMG) factory units at major industrial hubs like Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, and the capital have returned to normal despite sporadic incidents.
Although there were no reports of massive unrest in Ashulia, Gazipur, and Savar, 12 factories were declared closed in the aforementioned areas due to workers’ protests demanding arrears for some particular factories, or factories belonging to some industrial groups.
According to sources, 10 factories were declared closed in Gazipur.
Among them, factories of the Beximco Group were declared closed as workers protested, demanding their October wages and started attacking nearby factories to coerce workers to join them, which disrupted work activities at the area.
Moreover, two factories of Doreen Group (Doreen Apparels Ltd and Doreen Garments Ltd), Apparel 21 Ltd, and Shadhin Garments Ltd were closed in Gazipur areas under Section 13(1) of Bangladesh Labour Act, which enforces the rule of “no work, no pay”.
Moreover, five factories of TNZ Group were also closed under general holidays.
The workers of TNZ garment factory recently withdrew their 55-hour and another 3-4 hours blockade on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway after the authorities assured them of their overdue wages by November 30.
Meanwhile, according to a source of the BGMEA, the wages and allowances of the workers and staff of the five factories of TNZ Group have been cleared for the month of September on Thursday between 06:00PM-06:30 PM.
The decision to lift the blockade was taken at 10:30pm on Monday after a tripartite meeting among factory owners, worker representatives, and Secretary of the Ministry of Labour AHM Safiquzzaman.
As decided at the meeting, the government will provide a total of Tk16 crore as a loan to TNZ Apparels.
Of this amount, Tk6 crore will come from the central fund and will be used to pay the first installment of wages.
The remaining Tk10 crore will be provided by the Ministry of Finance, which will cover the remaining dues. The factory owners will later repay this amount to the government.
Moreover, the workers will be paid a regular salary from the factory’s own income from December.
Following the meeting, the workers accepted the decision and lifted the blockade, allowing traffic to return to normal.
Meanwhile, Abdul Halim, a director of Basic Knitwear Limited of TNZ Group, was arrested and sent to jail for not paying wages to workers.
The judge ordered him to be sent to jail when he was produced in court from Basan police station on Wednesday afternoon.
In Savar and Ashulia, two RMG factory units were closed on Thursday where Saadatia Sweaters of Ashulia was on general holiday where Global Attire Ltd of Savar was closed under 13(1), said industry sources.
Meanwhile, no factory closures were reported in the Dhaka area on Thursday.
Moreover, during the protests, the Chittagong, Narayanganj, and Narsingdi area factories also witnessed zero factory closure incidents.
On Thursday, 99.50% of the 401 factories in Savar and Ashulia remained operational. In Gazipur, 98.85% of the 870 factories were functioning, and in the DMP area, 100% of 300 factories were operational.
Nationally, 99.43% of factories operated normally, or 2,077 out of 2,089.
