Workers, employees unity threaten ‘non-stop’ protests if payments not cleared by 20th of Ramadan

Labour rights body Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, or SKOP, has warned authorities that it will launch a non-stop protest campaign if unpaid salaries and allowances of labourers remain unpaid by the 20th of Ramadan.

On Sunday, SKOP’s Joint Convenor Chowdhury Ashiqul Alam said that SKOP would stand by the working-class people if they resorted to agitation over not being paid.

“All we’ve to say is that promises must be fulfilled,” he said while announcing the programme in front of the National Press Club.

Rajekuzzaman Ratan, president of the Samajtantrik Sramik Front, or SSF, said: “Bangladesh runs on the hard work of the labourers, they spin the wheel of economy but the wheels of their lives don’t turn.”

Ratan pointed out that the workers’ representatives sat with the industry owners ahead of Ramadan and they had promised to “pay salaries as per the rules”, and “allowances in time for Eid”.

“We don’t want to see any breach of contract. If you breach the contract, and if labourers take to the streets, you will have no moral right to beat them up,” he said.

He questioned why the state would not pay the workers their due before Eid if the “ministers, advisors, secretaries, policemen and army officials who are paid with tax money” got salaries on time.

“The state must be held accountable if the salaries of ‘labourers’ are not paid. We don’t want to cause a mess, demonstrate on the streets, get shot by police or be reprimanded by the army.

“We just want our due payment at the end of a month for the work we did. Eid is here, pay us the Eid bonus and pay up any outstanding amount as well.”

Along with the call for paying dues by the 20th of Ramadan, the rally also demanded that no workers or employees be dismissed before Eid as per decisions made in a three-way meeting among the government, owners and workers.