Workers at MM Knitwear Ltd. in the Konabari neighbourhood of Gazipur staged another protest on Wednesday, calling for the reinstatement of recently laid-off workers. According to Md. Monowar Hossain, the factory’s administrative officer, the protest started at around nine in the morning, forcing workers to stop working inside the building.
According to Hossain, tensions increased during the demonstration, and plant workers and industrial police were allegedly attacked. The factory’s security in-charge, Mohammad Azizur Rahman, and a Gazipur Industrial Police officer, Constable Nahid Hossain, were both hurt in the incident, he said, adding, “The protesters claimed that the police interfered with their activities.”
The issue was made more difficult by the angry workers who stole the keys and shut the factory’s main gate. Army, Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion, industrial police, and Gazipur Metropolitan Police troops were sent to the location to control the disturbance.
One policeman and a factory employee were hurt in the confrontation, according to Konabari Police Station Officer-in-Charge Nazrul Islam, who also verified that MM Knitwear employees had been on a work stoppage since the morning before. He also said that discussions were continuing between the workers, police, and soldiers in an effort to find a solution.
According to Mohammad Fazal Ali, the emergency department supervisor at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital, Constable Nahid arrived with a head injury that needed sutures.
In line with the Labour Act of 2006, MM Knitwear Ltd. fired 113 employees for claims of violence, damage, and disturbance during the demonstrations, according to reports from the industrial police and factory sources. The fired workers gathered at the factory gates to demand reinstatement, even though they were given their money without protest.
RMG employees from four factories in the Konabari area—MM Knitwear Ltd., Mamun Knitwear Ltd., Swadhin Garments, and Quasem Lamps Ltd.—also demonstrated the day before, demanding a number of demands, including as the reinstatement of fired workers and the payment of past-due salaries.
