Editorial
Recurring unrest in RMG belt
Solution must be found urgently to stem further loss
The labour unrest the country has been witnessing over the last week in Ashulia area has now taken a turn for the worse as key demands remain unresolved and readymade garments (RMG) owners threaten to go for indefinite shutdown unless the government ensures 'security'. This new twist puts the government between a hard place and a rock.
There are unpalatable truths behind the latest round of violence that threatens to stop industrial activity in the Savar-Ashulia belt. Both house rent in the area and transportation fare to and from the industrial belt follow no normal patterns of increase. The average factory worker is paid minimum wage of Tk.3,000 per month, which in today's context of double-digit inflation does not carry much weight. This is more so since the rise in house rent knows no bounds, not even in the industrial belt. According to what have been published in newspapers, tenants of a medium-sized room with two single beds that costs each person Tk.600 now have been told that their rent will go up 25% to Tk.750 should workers receive the much talked about pay raise that is supposed to come into effect in July. The regular price hike scenario in the kitchen markets merely adds more fuel to fire in an already untenable situation.
It is obvious that such a situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. This is not merely a law and order situation. The fact that there is no organised trade union in most factories translates into a situation where workers' grievances remain unknown to management and this in turn helps create a gap in communication between the owners and the workers. Time has come for all the stakeholders including the government, factory owners and workers to sit down and work out these issues because a large portion of the annual $26billion generated through exports comes from RMG. Only the government has the authority to bring the contending factions to talks for every day's production loss translates into millions of dollars in lost revenue, a loss that the country can do without.
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