20 hurt as RMG workers clash with cops
A few hundred workers of Joya Garments at Kanchpur yesterday again clashed with police and barricaded Dhaka-Sylhet Highway for about two hours causing untold sufferings to people heading home for Eid holidays.
The workers set up a barricade on the highway around noon protesting against discrimination of factory authorities in providing Eid bonuses. When police rushed to the spot and tried to drive the agitating workers away, the workers engaged with the police.
Police charged truncheons on the demonstrating workers who retaliated with bamboo sticks and hurling brickbats. The clash left at least 20 people, including policemen and pedestrians, injured.
Witnesses said several hundred vehicles were stuck in queues that stretched well over nine kilometres due to the barricade on the highway.
Uttam Prasad, a director of Joya Garments, said, "According to the labour law, the factory authorities are not bound to pay Eid bonuses."
Later, the factory authorities were, however, forced to pay bonuses in full to all workers in presence of police and members of other law enforcement agencies.
Additional Superintendent of Police Masud Karim said, "After Sunday's demonstrations and the road blockade incident, the owner of Joya Garments had assured the workers of paying their bonuses today [Monday]. But the authorities paid bonuses in full to only half the workers and only one third of the bonuses to the other half."
On Sunday, the workers staged demonstration inside their factory demanding their wages and festival bonuses. They first clashed with factory staffers and then attacked the Ansar camp inside the factory. At one stage, they took to the highway and set up barricades.
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