Labour leaders seek NHRC intervention

Readymade garment sector worker leaders on Tuesday sought National Human Rights Commission’s intervention to protect the constitutional and civil rights of the workers who staged demonstrations for wage hike in the Ashulia industrial belt recently.
They made the appeal when a delegation of Garment Sramik Adhikar Andolan, a platform of 12 workers’ organisations, held a meeting with National Human Rights Commission chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque at his office in the capital.
Combined Garment Workers Federation president Rafiqul Islam Pathik, Garments Sramik Oikya Forum president Mushrefa Mishu, Bangladesh Garments Sramik Sanghati president Taslima Akter and Bangladesh Garment Sramik Mukti Andolan president Shabnam Hafiz attended the meeting. 
The labour leaders submitted a letter seeking help so that workers were not deprived of civil and human rights only because of raising their logical demand for pay hike.
In the letter, the labour leaders said that more than 1,600 workers who were terminated for staging demonstrations demanding pay hike were passing through severe socio-economic hardship.
The jobless workers were not staying at home to avoid being arrested as the factory owners and local police administration filed cases against unnamed workers, the platform said.
Instead of peaceful and democratic environment, a fearful situation is prevailing in the Ashulia industrial belt as police and local goons are raiding workers’ house every day, the letter says.
The labour organisations urged the NHRC chairman to take initiative to protect the constitutional rights of the workers.
‘The NHRC chairman said that the workers at Ashulia are not being treated in proper way and he assured us of taking initiative to protect the rights of workers,’ Garments Sramik Oikya Forum president Mushrefa Mishu told New Age after the meeting with NHRC chairman.
She said that the NHRC chairman assured that he would talk to the government and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and try to organise a tripartite meeting to resolve the issue.
Apparel workers at Ashulia started demonstrating on December 11, demanding increase of minimum wage to Tk 16,000 from Tk 5,300.
Terming the workers’ demands illegal, the authorities of 85 factories on December 20 and 21 announced closure of their units under Section 13(1) of the Labour Act for an indefinite period.
The factory owners reopened the units on December 26, with at least 1,600 workers sacked.
The factory owners and the police filed nine cases against over 1,500 people including workers on charge of instigating the labour unrest and arrested at least 30 people.

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