Savar: Three apparel factories of the top leader of the sector, BGMEA president Salam Murshedi, were shut down Monday amid two days of raging labour unrest over a longstanding demand for pay hike.

Sources said the police-worker rioting Sunday and Monday in Ashulia area left a total of 75 people wounded, including police cops. At least 25 people, including five cops, were wounded Monday in a fresh violence.        

Besides the indefinite closure of Manta Apparels, Envoy Fashion and Envoy Design of Murshedi’s Envoy Group, the workers of three other factories close by were locked out again on a day’s leave to avert flare-ups in backlash, police and owners said.   

Some 7,000 workers of Envoy factories were left jobless for an indefinite period through the closure, while as many of the three others were sent on forced leave halting production of the export items. 

The sources said in a sequel to Sunday’s labour unrest over the unfulfilled demand for fixing the minimum wage of RMG workers at Tk 5,000, the workers of the three factories again locked into a clash with police.

Some 50 people were injured in a clash between the agitating workers and police at Jamgara in the area Sunday.

Confirming the closure of his export-oriented apparel factories, Salam Murshedi told banglanews24.com.bd that he took the decision to avoid damage to the industrial units. “There’s no alternative to shutting down the factories to save the situation.”   

An official of the Group said the workers came to the factories on Monday morning but abstained from working that prompted the authorities to shut the workers out.

Angered by the decision, the workers came out of their factories and took to street, said the official. “As police dispersed them, the unruly workers vandalized three RMG factories—Ocean and Design, The Rose and Green Life,” he added.

Chased by the law enforcers, they again gathered in Rupayan area and locked into clashes with the police.

Meanwhile, the news of closure of the 10 factories that came under Sunday’s attack sent a wave of panic among the workers. As they had got edgy, the authorities of the 10 factories had declared holiday following Sunday’s rampage. However, four of the factories resumed operation Monday.

Additional Police Super of Dhaka Mozammel Huq said police reinforcements were sent for guarding the 10 factories, including Green Life, Young Apparels, Yourose Apex, Standard (BD), AM Design, Ocean and Design (BD), Pioneer Casual Wear, Hollywood Fashion and DK Knitwear.  

ASP of Savar (Circle) Monwar Hossain said the situation returned to normal, but the law enforcers were put on high alert to fend off further flare-up of violence.

Meanwhile, Salam Murshedi, the chief of the factory owners and apparel exporters’ association, claimed the workers of his factories had been demonstrating for realizing some “illogical demands” through abstaining from their work.

In the wake of the violence for last few days, the decision of closing the three factories has been taken at a board meeting, said the national football player-turned apparel businessman tycoon.

“The workers’ demand for pay hike is out of the jurisdiction of our organization. We are paying what the government has fixed. So, the government has to take decision in this regard, if the workers demand more,” said Murshedi.  

He lamented that the closure of his factories threw export orders into an uncertainty.

A raise in the wages has been a longstanding demand of nearly three million low-paid apparel workers in the country, and a slow-pace move in addressing the problem causes such flare-ups of industrial unrest more often than not in different belts.       

 BDST: 1400 Hrs, June 14,2010      
Corr//LY/MUA