Knitting section of a factory closed amid protests in Gazipur

In light of workers' agitation over various demands in Sreepur Upazila of Gazipur, the authorities of SQ Group have announced the closure of a section of the SQ Celsius Limited ready-made garment factory.

The notice to close the section has been put up since Sunday due to the ongoing agitation of the workers on 13-point demands, said Joynal Abedin, head of the human resources department of the sweater manufacturing company.

Workers in the knitting section said they began a peaceful strike on Thursday to press for 13 demands, informing higher authorities in writing.

The factory’s knitting section was declared closed at 4pm.

On Saturday, the workers saw two platoons of police outside before entering the factory. They observed a peaceful strike inside.

The authorities kept them sitting until noon, with false assurances that they would talk to the factory head office and inform them of the decision.

After noon, they were given leave for that day.

The workers said the authorities put up a notice to close the knitting section indefinitely at the factory gate on Saturday afternoon.

They came to the factory on Sunday to enquire about the matter.

The workers' 13-point demands include -

A one-hour lunch break,

Eighty percent of long-serving knitting operators should be promoted to senior operators based on their qualifications,

Cash should not be distributed at night,

Employees should receive two days off per week,

A 100 percent quality and production bonus should be provided,

Winding machines should be doubled,

Loop machines should be provided,

Technical problems should be solved,

Planning should be done in line with the times,

Timing should be fixed,

Quality incentives,

Mending man incentives,

Winding incentives should be given,

Half-day holidays should not be allowed,

Corrupt officials Shahriat Hossain, Joynal Abedin, and Moniruzzaman Sumon, the operations manager of the knitting section, should be removed.

When asked about the workers' demands, Joynal said: “There are some evil workers in all factories. They create agitations to destabilise the environment by causing such incidents before Eid.

“To restore normalcy in the factory, the knitting section of the factory has been closed indefinitely as per the decision of the higher authorities."

Shahriat Hossain, general manager of the human resources department of SQ Group, said: “The workers stopped work arbitrarily and purposefully without any notice. This amounts to an illegal strike.

“Later, the knitting section of the factory was closed indefinitely from Sunday under Section 13 (1) of the Bangladesh Labour Act-2006."