Left to starve in pandemic
Farida worked as a "substitute" labourer at Platinum Jubilee Jute Mill in Khulna's Khalishpur area for around nine years before it was shut down in July last year, leaving her unemployed.
At the age of 56, she started working as a domestic help in Khulna town. But she was jobless again for around three months, unable to find steady work during the pandemic.
Farida, whose husband died around 15 years ago, is a mother of four.
Her elder son, 38-year-old Alamin Sheikh, who worked at the same jute mill, also lost his job. He then worked as a day labourer but soon, this work also dried up as the pandemic effects continued in the country.
Farida's other son, who is 35, used to work in a scrap shop before the pandemic hit last year and now he too is unemployed. Farida's two young daughters also don't have any work.
"Now, we all live in a small room in a slum at Khalishpur industrial area. We are struggling so hard to get food," Farida told The Daily Star last week.
She is among over 31,000 temporary and substitute jute workers, who have been plunged into dire straits after losing their jobs following the closure of nine state-owned jute mills in the Khulna-Jashore industrial belt in July 2020 amidst the pandemic.
"I have worked in this jute mill for 17 years. Like me, thousands of people have spent our golden years for the development of the jute mills. In return, the authorities have terminated us without paying our due wages," said Siddiqur Rahman, a former temporary worker of Crescent Jute Mills.
"Now we want our due wages before Eid," he demanded.
The government closed all state-run jute mills on July 1 last year due to heavy losses and excessive production costs, laying off workers including more than 46,000 in Khulna.
Of them, around 15,000 were permanent, 5,000 temporary, and 26,000 substitute workers, according to workers' associations and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), the government body which regulates and supervises the state-run jute mills.
On a visit to four jute mills in Khulna's Khalishpur last week, this correspondent observed that the area wore a deserted look, which was once crowded round the clock with workers coming to and from their shifts.
Talking to The Daily Star, worker leader Ruhul Amin said, "The lives of temporary and substitute workers are in dire condition, as they don't know when they will be paid."
While many male workers are now working as rickshaw-van pullers, female workers face greater difficulties finding jobs, even as domestic help, due to the pandemic, he said. "During this pandemic, there is no work, no food for them."
Though the jute mill authorities promised workers they would pay their due wages within two months, this has only been partly implemented in one year, said Ruhul Amin.
Most of the workers used to live in the colonies on the mills' territory. When the mills were closed, the authorities concerned announced workers would be paid their due wages and arrears, only if they signed documents to the effect that they would leave the colony within the shortest possible time.
The workers signed the documents and left the colonies accordingly but their wages are yet to be paid, said Ruhul Amin.
Almost all the temporary and substitute workers are due wages of around six weeks to eight weeks in arrears, he added.
BJMC officials said due wages and arrears of almost all laid-off permanent workers have already been paid. But payments of nearly 22,000 substitute workers are still due.
"Firstly, we are paying the due wages of permanent workers. Then, we will pay substitute and temporary workers," said Md Murad Hossain, general manager of Platinum Jubilee Jute Mill in Khulna.
The arrears of substitute workers roughly amount to Tk 112 crore but there is no estimation for temporary workers yet, said BJMC officials.
Ruhul Amin said even the names of many permanent workers have been dropped from the workers' list due to spelling errors.
These workers, numbering around 1,500, are also worried about receiving any of their dues as their names are not even on the mill's list, he added.
At the time of closure, government officials concerned said the mills would be modernised and reopened shortly through joint venture, public-private partnership, or government-to-government agreements.
About the reopening of the mills, Golam Rabbani, BJMC liaison officer for Khulna zone, said the government is mulling leasing out the mills shortly.
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