Union leaders tarnishing image of Dragon Sweater, its MD says

Dragon Sweater Bangladesh paid wages for three months the factory was kept shut as per government instructions before terminating employees, who were unable to return to work once operations resumed, claimed Managing Director Mostafa Golam Quddus yesterday.

Still, a section of workers and their leaders are trying to tarnish the company's image, both at home and abroad, he told a press conference in the Sonargaon hotel.

The factory suspended operations on March 28 and two-thirds of its nearly 700 employees and staff joined work after it reopened, he said.

Some 140 workers could not return to work and the factory recruited some new workers to replace those absentees as operations had started running in full swing, said Quddus.

The company had paid the absent workers wages for the three months the factory was kept shut and there is no scope for any misunderstanding about it, Quddus said in a written statement.

Some union leaders have been hanging posters in front of different stores in Europe asking not to purchase Dragon's products. Such activities by "a section of anarchists" have been creating doubts in the minds of international buyers, he said.

The claims made by Quddus are not true, said Jolly Talukder, general secretary of Garment Workers Trade Union Centre, a platform for garment workers.

Until now, jobs of some 500 to 600 workers have been terminated and they have not been properly paid, she said.

"Every worker deserves legal payment by the employer. So Quddus should pay his workers and staff properly," Talukder told The Daily Star over phone.

Regarding the posters abroad, she said it was an expression of solidarity by global union leaders. "So it is very simple that the union leaders in European have been expressing solidarity with us," Talukder also said.