Garment workers block streets in Kamalapur area

Workers of Olio Apparels Limited block Dhaka’s Arambag intersection on 1 November 2022, demanding payment of their due salaries and wages.
Protholom Alo

Several hundred apparel workers have blocked Dhaka’s Arambag intersection since Tuesday morning , pressing their five-point demand including payment of their due salaries and wages.

Workers of Olio Apparels Limited staged sit-in on the Arambag-Kamlapur road on 8:00am and began demonstration pressing home their demands.

Agitating workers blocked the Arambag intersection saying they will not leave the streets unless their demands are met.

Traffic movement came to a halt on both side of the road due to the protest.

Workers said owners are relocating the factory to capital’s Uttrakhan without paying their salary and wages.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, factory operator Shuli said she came to workplace like every day and found factory locked. They then came to learn the factory was closed and no prior notice was issued, she added.

There were about 2,800 workers at the factory, which is owned by lawmaker Abdus Salam Murshedy.

Workers said they learned about the relocation of the factory but the authorities told them nothing.

They said they would not leave the streets until owner Abdus Salam Murshedy meet their five-point demand.

Their five-point demand includes providing workers with a compensation equal to four basic salaries for notice pay purpose, a basic salary for annual service benefit, arrear on annual leave, payment of maternity leave and two festival bonus.