Shakib instructs clearing the due salaries of his farm's employees

Shakib Al Hasan, who is currently in the United States with his family, has instructed the authorities of his aquaculture farm in Shathkhira to clear all the unpaid dues of the labours who had gathered for a movement demanding their due salaries on Monday.

Around 200 workers from Shakib Al Hasan Agro Farm Limited, owned by the star all-rounder, had gathered outside the farm and closed the Munshiganj-Nildumur road, claiming they were owed four months' wages.

According to Shakib's partner in the farm Sahagir Hossain Pavel, they had previously announced that the labours will receive their unpaid salaries by April 30 but despite that the movement was an unexpected one. Pavel informed that they sat for a meeting today and decided to pay the due salaries from tomorrow. 

"I have spoken with Shakib yesterday after that incident and we sat on a meeting today with the general manager of the farm. After the meeting we have decided to start clearing the dues from tomorrow. As our export were stopped for the past three months due to the corona virus, we did not receive any payments and that is why we were unable to pay the wages of our labours. Me along with Emdadul Haque, who was also involved in the matter, would want to apologise to our workers for that. When Shakib heard the matter, he instructed to pay the due salaries. I would also like to clear that Shakib bhai was busy recently and for that he was not involved to the matter personally. It was really an unexpected incident that took place yesterday and we are shocked and embarrassed," Pavel told The Daily Star over phone.

According to the labours they are due for their last four months' salary after the operations of the farm were closed since January. However according to Pavel not all the labours are due for their four months' salary.

"Look, for the coronavirus, our shipments have been stopped since January and since then we have released 80 per cent of the labours on January and they are around 250 labours. There were around forty remaining employees who were staying in the farm and some of them were released on February, March and April gradually. So, it is not true that all the labours are due of four-month salary. However, we were very humble towards the majority labours that we released on January and we were willing to clear their dues as soon as possible. But due to the coronavirus outbreak we faced a setback in our buisiness and a number of our bills remained pending. And hence we asked the labours to give us time till April 30 by when we assured them to pay their dues. But still the movement happened yesterday and it was very unexpected to see that. It was not just our farm as all the other farms are going through similar situation and were unable to export the products for the coronavirus outbreak worldwide," he added.