BM Report:

Leaders of garment workers have demanded the immediate release of all the arrested leaders and workers and the trial of the murderers of the garment workers. They want a halt to attacks, arrests, and blacklisting of garment workers, as all such harassments are further annihilating the image of Bangladesh’s largest industrial and export sector globally.

“If the labor situation in the garment industry is not brought back to normal, this sector will lose its reputation internationally, and the whole of Bangladesh will have to pay the price,” said Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garment Workers’ Federation. Amin’s and some other workers’ organizations, under the umbrella of the IndustiALL Bangladesh Council (IBC), organized a protest and human chain program on Sunday in front of the National Press Club in the city.

The Ekata Garment Workers’ Federation’s General Secretary, Kamrul Hasan, said, “So far, four garment workers have been killed by police and goons, 115 workers have been arrested, and 20,000 workers have been listed as accused in 43 cases.

Labor leaders Rafiqul Islam, Faridul Islam, Md. Kabir Hossain, Miss Sweety Sultana, Miss Seema Akrata, Lokman Ali, and others also spoke at the protest program. Organizations under IndustiALL placed eight-point demands on Sunday.

Leaders of the workers demanded reconsideration of minimum wages, pointing out that low wages are the main cause of labor unrest, so the wages should be reconsidered. The minimum wage should be increased from Tk 12,500/-, and the rate of increase in basic wages should be increased from 53% to 65%,” a declaration at the protest read. It also added that workers should get 30 percent more wages for working on holidays, they said.

Leaders pointed out that in 2018, the minimum wage was Taka 8,000,  or US$97, which is currently equal to Taka 11,349, while at the 4th meeting of the wage board, the employer proposed a minimum wage of 10,400, i.e., 89 dollars.

As workers found that their wages had not been increased but rather reduced, they got angry and went for protests, the labor leaders said. They added that police, industrial police, and the Rapid Action Battalion also harassed workers, while factory closures and layoff notices by the owners also provoked the workers to protest.

The meeting was told that operators and equivalent workers constitute 80 percent of the total workforce in the garment sector, and a relatively lower increase in their wages instigated workers into protests in the recent movement. They pointed out that the wage for grade 5, i.e., helpers to grades 4, 3, 2, and 1, should be increased at a reasonable rate. From 1994 to 2013, the wage increase for helpers to higher grades ranged between 9% and 7%, which was cut to 5% in 2018, but in 2023, the wage hike for grades from helpers onwards has been fixed at only 4%.

The leader of garment workers demanded immediate stopping of the arrest and harassment of workers and labor leaders, releasing arrested leaders and workers against all charges, paying full wages to workers in factories closed now under Section 13(1), and opening closed factories immediately, not blacklisting workers.

They demanded medical care for all workers, compensation for the loss of income to the families of the slain workers, a proper investigation of the murder of four workers, and the arrest and trial of those responsible. Leaders want compensation for the affected families as per ILO Convention 121. The meeting also said the ILO Convention and the Bangladesh Labor Law were violated in forming the minimum wage board as representatives of workers were selected there as per the choice of the owners.