Salary day for Tazreen workers today

The surviving workers of razed and now-closed Tazreen Fashions Ltd at Nischintapur in Ashulia demand their salary of four months and 13 days altogether.
As the factory authorities are set to pay the workers their November salary today, tension runs high in the area as they are adamant about their demand and said they would not accept if the authorities offer them only the month's salary.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, over 20 workers of the factory expressed their suspicion over the factory's resumption of operation anytime soon.
In Saturday's deadly fire, the eight-storey factory building was badly damaged. A banner set at the factory by police, seen yesterday, reads: “This factory is highly risky. Everyone is requested not to enter the building.”
According to the government rule, a garment factory has to provide its workers with the salary of three months and 13 days if it is shut or dismisses any worker.
For the past few days, the issue of realising the salary of four months and 13 days has been in the air of Nishchintapur area where most workers of Tazreen Fashions live.
They were also in deep uncertainty of getting new jobs soon to continue their livelihood and feed their dependents.
Meanwhile, the survivors who sustained major injuries feared that they would not be able to join elsewhere immediately, and therefore, they needed the money to support their families until they recover.
Meanwhile, a small crowd of workers staged a demonstration at Nishchintapur Primary School yesterday morning when they announced that no worker would join Tazreen Fashions if the authorities offered its workers only a month's salary.
Tazreen Fashions has 1,700 employees, of whom, 1,630 are workers, according to the website of Tuba Group, which owns the factory.
Sewing operator Ratna Begum is among the injured and depressed workers. She was badly injured after jumping off the fourth floor of the building.
"We have to pay Tk 1,500 as rent for the room our four-member family is living in. I have two school-going sons and have to send money to my aged in-laws living in village," she said with anguishing pain while lying on the premises of her house at Nishchintapur.
"How can I go to work since I cannot even move now?" asked Ratna shrouded in anxiety.
The state of Rukhsana is quite different. A five-month pregnant, she survived the inferno that day miraculously. She was expected to go on her maternity leave in February next year.
"Who will give me a job now?" asked Rukhsana. "I was supposed to get the maternity leave and salary during my leave. Now I do not know how much money they [Tazreen management] will give me," she said.