Garments workers block road for an hour in Gazipur demanding pay rise

Workers of a garment factory named Irish Fashion Limited located in Jirani area of ​​Gazipur city started a demonstration today, Monday morning demanding a pay rise.

They gathered on the Chandra-Nabinagar road at around 8:30 am. After an hour, they moved away from the road and started demonstrating towards to the factory.

After speaking to industrial police and workers, it was learned that the 9 per cent annual salary increase announced by the government states that those who have not completed one year of service will not be given a salary increase.

However, the workers of the Irish Fashion Limited factory started a demonstration demanding a salary increase from yesterday, Sunday morning.

The workers demonstrated until afternoon and then returned home. This morning the workers went to the factory, submitted their attendance and started the demonstration again.

The workers gathered on the Chandra-Nabinagar road around 8:30 am and continued with their demonstration. Upon receiving the news, members of the law and order enforcement forces reasoned with the protesting workers to remove them from the street.

The traffic movement on that road became normal again after 9:30 am. Meanwhile, the workers are continuing with their demonstration inside the factory.

One of the workers of the factory, Md Habib said, “Like other workers, new workers (less than a year into service) should also get a pay rise. Those who joined earlier do the same work as us. So why wouldn’t we get a pay rise?”

At around 10:30 am today, additional superintendent of industrial police in Gazipur Khalilur Rahman said that the workers had blocked the road for a brief period.

The traffic movement on Chandra-Nabinagar road is normal now. Additional law enforcement officers have been deployed at the scene, he added.