Workers of a garment factory at Ashulia observed work abstention on Saturday to press for their demands, including transport allowance hike.
Police and factory sources said the workers of Indian-owned Pearl garment factory, located at Palashbari came to the factory in the morning and started work abstention although the management had raised their tiffin allowance and the police released a worker who was arrested earlier.
Nazrul Islam, Sumon Talukder, Arif and some other workers said the management with the help of police were harassing them by filing cases against them.
'For the last few months the workers have been demanding hike in their perks, including transport, overtime and festival allowances. But instead of meeting our demand, the management resorted to oppression on the workers in many ways, including illegal termination and filing of false cases,' the said.
At one point, the Ashulia police arrested Manjurul Islam, a superviser of the factory, on Friday night, the workers said.
As the news spread, the workers became agitated and came out of the factory and tried to block the highway in protest. They demanded immediate release of their colleague.
On information, the police went to the scene and after discussion with the workers, released the arrested worker.
The factory management also raises the workers' tiffin allowance from Tk 26 to Tk 30.
But the workers announced that they would continue the work abstention until their other demands were met.
Ashulia police sub-inspector Kazi Khairul Alam said the workers had been staging demonstrations for last few days for tiffin allowance hike. He also said that police had arrested a worker in a case filed by another worker of the factory.
After releasing the arrested worker, police also assured them that no more cases would be filed against the workers, he said.
Additional police have been deployed on the factory premises to prevent further trouble.
Source : New Age
