News Desk :
Workers of Abanti Colour Tex Ltd have gone on strike in Narayanganj’s Fatullah BSCIC area, demanding backpay for months of work.
The garment workers demonstrated inside the Crony Group-owned factory for nearly six hours from 8 am on Thursday morning, reports bdnews24.com
Despite guarantees they would receive their paycheques on the first of every month, at least 10,000 employees working in the factory’s dyeing and knitting departments have been collecting their dues in instalments for six months.
According to the workers, they have yet to be compensated for the months of December and January.
Jamal Hossain, a worker of the factory’s knitting branch, told reporters, “We had to drive out outsiders when they tried to stop us from protesting in the morning. Later, we recovered several sharp weapons and sticks on the factory grounds.”
Jamal believes the weapons were brought to the factory last night to suppress the workers.
Champa Akhter, an employee working at the factory’s sewing department, complained that outsiders walked in and caused unrest on Thursday morning in an attempt to bring the crowd under control.
“Some of the workers were also beaten in the presence of industrial policemen inside the factory premises. This is why we also demonstrated on Wednesday,” she added.
After the protest, the garment workers placed the weapons outside the factory around 2 pm.
Later, Fatullah police took the weapons to the police station. Nur-e-Azam, the officer-in-charge of Fatullah Model Police Station, said that additional policemen have been deployed to bring the workers’ protest under control.
“We seized the weapons that were recovered from the factory,” said OC Azam.
AH Aslam Sunny, the managing director of Crony Group, could not be reached on his phone.
On Dec 24, workers of the Crony Tex Sweater Ltd factory demonstrated by blocking the Dhaka-Munshiganj road after layoffs were announced due to a decrease in orders.
