Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) decided last night to stop any new recruitment until unrest by workers in factories by existing workers comes to a stop.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the BGMEA office at Uttara in Dhaka. BGMEA President Faruque Hassan chaired the meeting where Atiqul Islam, mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation, Abdus Salam Murshedy, a lawmaker and former BGMEA president, were also present.

Apart from stopping new recruitment, the BGMEA leaders also directed member factories that have been vandalised to file cases with nearby police stations mentioning names of the workers responsible where possible, or accusing unnamed persons if the names are not found.

They asked the member factories to collect the photos of the demonstrating workers from video footage before filing the cases against them.

The owners of the factories will shut down their units under Section 13(1) of the labour law if they see the workers are not at their workplaces and instead coming out for agitation. Section 13(1) says "no work no pay".

The BGMEA leaders also asked members to collect the video footage of the vandalism and demonstration by the workers and to submit it to the BGMEA system analyst as evidence as soon as possible.

After the meeting, the BGMEA issued a letter addressed to the owners with these directives.