The non-payment of due wages and bonuses that prompted the workers of five factories of Tuba Group to go on hunger strike and the crisis created thereby was “stage-managed” by the management to orchestrate the freedom of owner Delwar Hossain, workers have alleged.
A High Court bench on July 24 granted two months’ ad interim bail to Delwar, arrested in connection with the November 2012 Tazreen factory that killed more than a hundred people.
Delwar, however, was still to be freed yesterday because his bail order was not processed due to the Eid vacations. For reasons unknown, the developments surrounding the bail remained out of media radar until the crisis deepened during the Eid vacations.
According to a court source, Delwar’s lawyer argued that he had to be freed for making sure that the workers of his factories got their dues paid.
Workers, who have been fasting for four days, alleged that the management of the group “created an artificial crisis” so that it could lead to the release of the owner. They said the mother company needed more than Tk4.13 crore to clear all the dues of those five factories.
Interestingly, around 1,000 workers of another factory owned by Delwar got all their wages and bonuses in right time. The fact that Delwar was in jail did not appear to be a problem as Tuba Group managed a packaging credit of over Tk1 crore from a commercial bank for paying their dues.
Yesterday, this reporter visited the site of Tuba Garments, the concern of the group whose workers got all their dues paid in time. It was closed for seven days for the Eid vacations and there had not been any trace of worker unrest.
The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has also been saying that Tuba Group would not be able to pay the dues of the workers of those five factories unless their owner was released.
The BGMEA wanted to pay the dues before Eid but the banks refused to provide the fund because the owner was in jail, claimed SM Mannan, acting president of BGMEA.
As of yesterday, around 1,600 workers of five factories did not get their wages and overtime dues for the months of May, June and July and the Eid bonuses.
Over 1,200 workers of these factories have been continuing their hunger strike at the Hossain Market in the capital’s Badda for the fourth consecutive day yesterday, demanding payment of the outstanding amounts.
More than 70 of the agitators, including some workers’ leaders, have fell ill. Eight of them have been admitted to the Dhaka Metropolitan Community Hospital in Moghbazar.
“We were paid our wages up to April, when the factory made jersey for the FIFA World Cup,” said a line supervisor of one of the factories named Tuba Fashion.
“The management started delaying our payments in a planned way so that they could get the owners released before Eid. They thought if they could give rise to a labour unrest before the festival, it would draw media as well as government attention,” he said.
“These five factories have been used as a tool for freeing the owner because there are more workers... They wanted us to demonstrate so that they could free the owner by indirectly creating pressure on us,” said a female sewing operator of Tayed Design, another factory owned by Delwar’s Tuba Group.
Labour leader Sirajul Islam Rony, who has expressed solidarity with the agitating workers, endorsed the Tuba management’s scheme.
“The allegation that they tried to free the owner by holding the workers hostage is not completely baseless. An NGO tried to persuade the workers to directly demand the owner’s release. But they did not pay heed,” Rony said.
“The workers later found out what the NGO had been trying to do and beat up their officials,” he said.
“With the help of BGMEA, we tried to free Delwar Hossain, managing director of Tuba Group, and I came to know that he secured bail. But because it was the last working day before the Eid holidays, we could not bring him out,” Laily Begum, Delwar’s mother-in-law, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Laily came to meet the fasting workers for a negotiation on Monday, the day the workers started their hunger strike. However, since then, the workers have kept her confined.
She also said if Delwar was freed, a solution to the problem would come and the workers would get their dues paid.
However, no official of the Tuba Group was available for making any comment regrding the allegations that the workers have raised.
Four days have passed since the workers have been fasting, but neither the BGMEA nor the government has allegedly extended any material support. The workers have not got any assurance about the payment of their dues either.
The BGMEA organised a media briefing at its building the capital’s Karwan Bazaar yesterday. The apex trade body of the apparel sector assured at the briefing that the issue would be settled in seven working days.
When asked why they had not gone to meet the agitating workers, former BGMEA president Tipu Munshie said: “I urge media to convey our message to the workers that we will talk to the government about the problem and make a decision about their going there.”
Tipu also said: “The workers demanded wages and other dues; they did not demand the release of Delwar.”