Textile workers protest against poor wages in Bangladesh
At least 25,000 textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh on Saturday to demand back pay and bonuses.
By Agencies |
DHAKA: At least 25,000 textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh on Saturday to demand back pay and bonuses in one of the country's biggest industrial zones, police said.
The workers walked off the job in the Tejgaon Industrial Area in Dhaka and held protests on the streets, forcing shutdown of most factories in the area, assistant police commissioner Moshiur Rahman said.
Police used batons to break up protests after demonstrators smashed the windows of several factories, Rahman said, adding army personnel and the elite Rapid Action Battalion were deployed.
"The protests have calmed down," Rahman said. "We have told factory owners to sit with the workers to settle the wage dispute. Otherwise, it may flare up again."
At least 50 people, including four policemen, were injured during the demonstrations when protestors using sticks and stones clashed with factory workers who refused to join the protests, the private UNB news agency reported.
The military-backed government has banned all kinds of protests and rallies and has said it will not "tolerate" any unrest in the important textile sector that is crucial to impoverished Bangladesh's export earnings.
Tejgaon is home to some of Bangladesh's top garment factories. Garments are Bangladesh's biggest export earners with sales abroad fetching more than nine billion dollars, or three-quarters of the country's total export earnings, in the last fiscal year.
But the industry has been hit by a series of protests over low wages and poor working conditions.
Sixteen factories were torched and hundreds vandalised last year.
The protests came to a halt late in 2006 when the government, unions and the employers agreed to a 25-dollar monthly minimum wage.
In the latest warning, the government has said it will take legal action against factories that fail to implement the minimum wage by September 30. The manufacturers say 90 percent of the factories have put the minimum wage into effect.
The workers walked off the job in the Tejgaon Industrial Area in Dhaka and held protests on the streets, forcing shutdown of most factories in the area, assistant police commissioner Moshiur Rahman said.
Police used batons to break up protests after demonstrators smashed the windows of several factories, Rahman said, adding army personnel and the elite Rapid Action Battalion were deployed.
"The protests have calmed down," Rahman said. "We have told factory owners to sit with the workers to settle the wage dispute. Otherwise, it may flare up again."
At least 50 people, including four policemen, were injured during the demonstrations when protestors using sticks and stones clashed with factory workers who refused to join the protests, the private UNB news agency reported.
The military-backed government has banned all kinds of protests and rallies and has said it will not "tolerate" any unrest in the important textile sector that is crucial to impoverished Bangladesh's export earnings.
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Tejgaon is home to some of Bangladesh's top garment factories. Garments are Bangladesh's biggest export earners with sales abroad fetching more than nine billion dollars, or three-quarters of the country's total export earnings, in the last fiscal year.
But the industry has been hit by a series of protests over low wages and poor working conditions.
Sixteen factories were torched and hundreds vandalised last year.
The protests came to a halt late in 2006 when the government, unions and the employers agreed to a 25-dollar monthly minimum wage.
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The government has issued several warnings to the factories to implement the minimum wage but according to the unions just 20 percent have done so.In the latest warning, the government has said it will take legal action against factories that fail to implement the minimum wage by September 30. The manufacturers say 90 percent of the factories have put the minimum wage into effect.
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