PM orders continuation of operations at RMG factories, security measures

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Sunday instructed the law enforcers and other concerned agencies to ensure the continuation of operations at garment factories, while ensuring security for properties and lives amid an increasingly violent labour unrest in and around Dhaka.

The PM gave the orders during a meeting with a number of ministers and advisers held at the Secretariat on Sunday evening, said Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury at a post-meeting briefing.

As street demonstrations and violence raged, authorities suspended operations in around 300 garment factories on Sunday, while operations in hundreds others were disrupted due to work boycotts, seriously affecting the country’s leading export-oriented industry.

One of the key demands of the protesting workers is wage hike, but despite government assurances in this regard, protests have turned increasingly violent over the past two days.

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Attempts are being taken to destabilise the garment industry ahead of December, minister Ariful Haque Choudhury told reporters at the briefing on Sunday night.

The government will counter these attempts “politically,” he said.

The government is working to ensure normal operations in the country’s industrial belts, while also studying the causes behind the ongoing unrest in these areas.

The government has already formed a six-member wage board to discuss potential wage hikes for garment workers, and the panel would take a constructive decision soon, Ariful Haque Choudhury said.

In the meantime, law enforcers have been instructed to stay cautious so that the security in industrial areas and societies is not disrupted as a result of the spreading protests, Ariful Haque Choudhury added.

In the same briefing, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, who also joined the meeting chaired by the prime minister, urged the factory owners and managers to reopen their temporarily shuttered factories from Monday and continue operations.

He urged them to help keep the country’s exports afloat and continue operations in consultations with the protesters.

In August, Sheikh Hasina, fugitive death row convict and leader of the banned Awami League, told reporters from her exile in India that she planned to return to Bangladesh in December.

Since then, rumours and speculations spread that the banned Awami League and its affiliated groups would stage major demonstrations and sabotage attempts in December to pave the way for her potential return.

‘Real workers don’t seek violence’

Salahuddin Ahmed said that many people from across the border were instigating and supporting violence amid the workers’ protests.

It has been clearly seen that many masked individuals were infiltrating the protests when they get the chance and carrying out violence to meet their “evil interests,” Salahuddin told reporters.

These people want to disrupt the country’s export earnings, but the government will deal with them strictly, he said.

Some of the infiltrators have already been detained, he claimed.

The government believes that no real worker or group of workers would cause violence to press for their legitimate demands. Rather, the real workers wound engage in talks to address their grievances, Salahuddin said.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has already instructed and advised the relevant authorities, including the new wage board, and labour ministry, to uphold the interests of the workers, and ensure improve living standards for them, Salahuddin told reporters.