In the industrial area Ashulia, workers have joined work in most of the garment factories since morning. However, 20 factories are still closed. Out of these two are general holidays and 18 are holidays under section 13 (1) of the Labor Act.
Police Superintendent Sarwar Alam of Shilpa Police-1 confirmed this information around noon on Sunday (September 15).
Earlier, workers could be seen attending work on time in the factories that had been running since morning despite the rain.
Meanwhile, additional security personnel have been deployed to control the situation. Surveillance has been increased.
Army, APBN and police personnel have taken position in front of various factories in the Narsinghpur area of Bypaile-Abdullahpur road in Ashulia. Army, RAB, BGB and policemen are patrolling the road.
According to Ashulia Industrial Area Police-1, most of the closed factories are ready-made garment factories. These factories are closed due to various reasons, including strike by workers due to various demands. As per Section 13 (1) of Labor Act-2006, 18 factories are closed. Apart from this, the factory authorities have declared general holidays in two factories.
Khairul Mamun Mintu, legal affairs secretary of Bangladesh Garments and Sweaters Workers Trade Union Center, said that the environment can be said to be very calm today. Most of the factories are working. Overall the situation is good today.
Superintendent of Police (SP) of Shilpa Police-1 Sarwar Alam said that the factories have been running since morning. Section 13 (1) is barred from filing various claims pending resolution of a few factories. We hope these will also open. 18 factories are closed in this category. General holidays have been declared in two other factories. A total of 20 are closed. Total factories here are 1863. Most of the factories are working. Where there are problems, we try to solve the problem by sitting down both parties. Internal issues are being resolved internally. No barricades, no protests anywhere, traffic is normal on the roads. Overall, there are no reports of any deterioration in the situation.
Meanwhile, the members of the Labor Grievance Monitoring and Review Committee visited the Anant Group factory in Ashulia around 11 am in view of the resolution of the ongoing labor unrest. They discussed the overall issue with the factory officials.
During the inspection, the additional secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Employment and the convener of the labor complaint monitoring and review committee Md. Sabur Hossain said that the 11-member committee was formed last Wednesday. The next day, a meeting was held regarding the committee's scope of work and work management. According to the decision of that meeting, I came to Ashulia to solve the situation arising in the industrial area. We want to know the demands, objections and complaints of the factory owners and workers. We have a hotline 16357, WhatsApp group, e-mail ID to inform them, and we have come to Ashulia to inform everyone about these issues.
He said, we want to present their fair and reasonable demands to the government. If there is an opportunity to fill them immediately, we would recommend that too. If it takes time, I will also inform the government. We hope that factories will continue to work, workers will work. We are hopeful that all factories will open from today. Gradually the situation will return to normal.
Earlier, on Saturday, at least 39 factories in Savar and Ashulia industrial areas were declared closed indefinitely by the owners; besides 13 other factories had a general holiday.