Editorial
Garment workers' new demand
Set up a govt committee for a durable solution to their grievances
GARMENT workers' violence in Kanchpur of Narayanganj on Tuesday has again left some people injured and properties both public and private damaged. And it is for the umpteenth time that garments workers have taken to the street and gone on a rampage.
For a change though, this time the garment workers were not chanting their usual slogans for pay raise and other benefits from the factory management. On the contrary, they were demanding that house rents in that particular industrial area and at other blocks nearby be lowered and supply of water and gas be ensured.
Although they have a legitimate grievance here, the issue of exorbitant house rent and poor supply of gas and water are matters deserving to be addressed at a different level. Why the work of the industry and public mobility be held ransom to it. Breaking vehicles on the road, attacking police box and holding unsuspecting victims who have nothing to do with their demands to ransom are certainly not the way to press home their point. Neither would that convince the landlords to reduce house rent nor ensure smooth supply of water and gas.
The situation obtaining in the garment industry therefore calls for looking deeper into the root cause of the problem that is making the workers nervy and prone to violence in greater intensity and number. While violence is a condemnable offence, there is still the room for handling the garment workers' agitation in a mellower light. The demands of the demonstrating workers from Sinha, Opex and Esquire garments in Kanchpur, for example, did point to the very miserable conditions in which the garment workers are compelled to live. In fact, the lion's share of the monthly income of those workers is spent on paying the rents of their unhygienic shanties. Whatever they are left with at the end of the month, their families have to subsist on it.
Therefore, the factory management needs also to look into this particular aspect of the garment workers' service conditions and living and take some steps to resolve their acute accommodation problem by building low-cost living quarters for them.
Overall, the way their demands are escalating are basically reflective of some fundamental inadequacies in their service terms and conditions including their salary and benefit structure. As long as these remain, there will be spurts and bursts of agitation and demonstration across the sector. Of course, each factory will have its specific problems but there is a common thread to their grievances. Even the minimum salary arrived at earlier on through a tripartite agreement has fallen due for a review, let alone the whole gamut of what goes by the name of a compensation package. Given the pressing nature of frequent outbreak garment sector agitation and violence it seems a compelling necessity for the government to set up a composite committee of stakeholders to work out a durable solution to the recurrent problems of the garment sector.
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