Get this straight. I am least interested in being politically correct as I write this. And unlike the mainstream media, am not going to weep for BGMEA and its members who were at the receiving end of yesterday’s workers riot in and around Dhaka.

These are the Shylocks, now in utter terror, asking for army deployment. Well, are we to believe that earning some billions of dollars soaked with blood gives this group the immunity to push their workers towards slow death? And if the workers raise their hands in protest against the nauseating trend of inhuman repression and exploitation, that gets termed “anarchy”, “violence”…. blah… bla… bla… [Mu-a-ha, you don't comply and prostrate before the Chamber building, we will call in the generals to take over].

And this is the bloody country, with a shameless government, that can not ensure fair wages for its workers and when those very workers refused to get raped like this day in-day out, ministers will cry foul and smell “external influence”, “conspiracy”. There are times, marital rapes become pilgrimage compared to the sheer level of impunity our “husbands” in the business blocks enjoy. [O god. I was about to fuck her, my wife. And that bitch slapped me. How can a wife raise her hand against her husband! Maybe, she's an evil look-alike. That handsome neighbour must the behind this. I am going to call in the ARMY]

While a propaganda assault against the worker’s movement is on, burning task is to keep the records straight. This comes refuting the baseless and disgusting allegations that have made their way to the front pages this morning.

– This riot was not influenced or organised by “outsiders”, as alleged. It is very much apparent that legitimate and established labour organisations like Bangladesh Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra and Bangladesh Garment Sramik Oikkya Front (President Moshreffa Mishu was arrested from Gazipur yesterday) were the key organisers.

– It was not a riot without reason. Just to list a few: fair wage, fair working hour arrangements, weekly holiday, maternity leave…

New Age needs a honourable mention as they are probably the only mainstream daily presenting the “other side” [should have been the core] of the story.

Labour leaders put unrest down to years of deprivation
Abul Kalam Azad

Labour leaders attributed the ongoing agitation by readymade garment workers to years of systematic deception and deprivation by factory owners.

Factory owners have hardly ever bothered to address the legitimate concerns of workers, they said. Time and again workers have demanded that their wages should be increased, and their rights and safety at workplace be ensured, in vain, they added.

More than 20 lakh people, majority of them women, work at 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh, putting in 12 hours or more every day for monthly pays in the range of Tk 500 to Tk 1,500, according to official figures.

‘I get Tk 900 for a month of hard labour which is not enough to even foot by food bills,’ said a worker at Tejgaon. ‘Can you show me one worker who runs his family without a hitch with the money he gets?’ Sagar, who works in SS Sweater for a monthly salary of Tk 950, asked.

Owners of RMG factories have subverted a government plan to fix a minimum national wage for workers in the private sector and continue to pay one of the lowest remuneration packages in the world.

They have, meanwhile, submitted a proposal to the labour ministry, which lies pending for more than six months. ‘Workers in the apparel sector, which contributes to 75 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, are paid on average less than six cents an hour,’ Ruhul Amin, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Sramik (workers) Trade Union Kendra (centre).

‘Low wages have helped the owners to keep production costs at a minimum level but made headlines in global media and given out a negative image of the country in respect of workers’ wages and welfare,’ said Abdul Kader Hawlader, president of Jatiya Sramik Jote, Bangladesh.

Garment owners receive the highest amount of cash incentive show a reckless disregard for safety at workplace as deaths of 4,000 workers in industrial accidents such as fire and building collapse point to.

Workers are not entitled to even public holidays, let alone a day off in a week. Also, payments of bonus and medical allowance are irregular, if not non-existent, while maternity leave continues to be discouraged.

Factory owners claim that they provide workers with perks and privileges but what they actually are workers don’t have the faintest idea of. Many workers have alleged that their employees and their hired goons force them to work long hours for low pay, no matter how unhealthy the working condition is. In most cases, workers who come from poor families find no alternatives.

In most cases, workers do not dare to voice their demand for welfare for fear of losing jobs, as job cut is a common phenomenon in the RMG sector.

Abul Hossain, president of the Textile Garments Workers Federation, said the past two days of violence were the outcome of two decades of repression by factory owners. He said the crisis would be solved, if the workers were paid Tk 3,000 in monthly salary, given weekly day off, and ensured safety at workplace and other rights.

Labour organisations set 11-point demand
Staff Correspondent

Different organisations, working for rights of the workers in the industrial sector, set an 11-point demand. They also announced a strike in the garments factories for June 12 to press home their demands, including fixation of minimum wage at Tk 3,000 per month, security at workplace, weekly holiday at all the factories, workers’ rights to do trade union and establish labours’ welfare-oriented industrial relations.

The other demands are end to repression on workers, withdrawal of cases against them and release of all the arrested workers, 16-week maternal leave for all the female workers, implementation of the existing labour law, payment of salaries and other dues and allowances immediately and reopening of the closed factories.

Owners behind no pay rise for garment workers
Kazi Azizul Islam

Despite protracted movements of garment workers for pay increase, the legal minimum wage remains Tk 930 with the government paying no heed to their demand for minimum living wages.

The minimum wage for the garment sector workers was last fixed in 1994 while the cost of living shot up by about 50 per cent, according to official assessment, because of mounting inflationary pressures, though independent economists put it at hundred per cent.

Labour leaders alleged that wages for workers did not increase due to the government’s indifference to their plight. The low wages for garment workers have been the outcome of continuous lobbying by the leaders of trade bodies and businessmen-turned-politicians in the corridor of power, they said.

‘Powerful lobbies of garment owners have been able to keep the government convinced that if wages in garment sector increase, it will increase production costs and discourage local and foreign investors from investing in the burgeoning sector,’ said Jafrul Hasan, general secretary of the labour front of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Hasan, also the permanent representative of workers in the Minimum Wage Board, alleged that reluctance on the part of the government, and dillydallying by the labour ministry were blocking formation of the commission. The board under the labour ministry is responsible for forming periodic wage commissions to review wages in different private sector industries.

Roy Ramesh Chandra, the general secretary of the opposition Awami League’s labour front, alleged that the labour ministry was sitting on the demand for wage increase in the garment sector. Shahida Sarker, the president of the Garment Workers Federation, alleged, ‘the bureaucracy has also been thwarting the government’s move to review the wage structure.’

Workers in the country’s apparel sector that accounts for 75 per cent of export revenues, are mostly paid less than 6 cents an hour against 20 to 78 cents in other countries.

In February 2005, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation found that the monthly minimum wage for Bangladesh’s garment workers was some $33 ten years ago, but that came down to $16 in real value due to devaluation of Bangladesh Taka against dollar.

The Brussels-based organisation shows that in India and Pakistan, an apparel worker gets at least 20 cents per hour, in China 23 cents, in Sri Lanka 40 cents while in Thailand the worker is paid 78 cents. Meanwhile, the labour organisations have agreed to forge a greater unity to press the demand for increasing the workers’ minimum monthly wages to Tk 3,000 (18 cents an hour).