Owners closed at least eight garment factories in Dhaka city and its adjacent areas in last three moths allegedly without maintaining the factory laws. Labour leaders claimed that several thousand garment workers were thrown out of jobs and deprived of wage and allowance arrears due to abrupt closures. The National Alliance for Protection of Garments Workers and Industries leader Abul Hossain said the owners had no right to close their factories before clearing workers’ dues.

The closed garment factories are Nibras Knitwear Limited and SIS Garments Limited at Mahakhali in Dhaka, Marshal Knitex Limited at Kaliakoir and Life Garments Limited at Konabari of Gazipur, Sydney Fashion Limited at Tejgaon in Dhaka, Pubali Knitex Limited in Ashulia and Fountain Garments Manufacturing at Baipail of Savar. Nippon Garment at Tongi was the latest unit whose abrupt closure sparked violent protest of workers and resulted in death of at least three people in police firing Saturday. Pubali Knitex has resumed production recently, but has not paid the workers’ dues, rights leaders said. Workers of most of the closed factories were not paid wages, overtime bills, festival allowances and other service benefits, they claimed.

Garments Sramik Oikya Forum president Mushrefa Mishu said garment factory owners have the right to close their factories but they have to maintain the factory laws properly and clear all dues of workers. But in most cases workers are denied their rights and subjected to harassment by the authorities, she said. Of the country’s nearly 4,000 garment factories, roughly 3,000 units are situated in capital Dhaka and the outskirts. Industry sources said global recession took it toll on export orders, forcing many large factories to scale down production. Small factories, which mainly stitch as subcontractors for big companies, were badly hit and many of them turned insolvent. There is bankruptcy law in force, but rarely any company goes to a court to seek bankruptcy protection because of legal complication, they pointed out.

Many factories find closures or layoffs without notice an easy exit, rendering workers jobless overnight, they said. Law requires a factory owner to notify at least one month before shutting down production and a copy of the notice must reach the labour department immediately. All dues and other benefits must be cleared before the closure. Prior notice is also a must in case of layoff and the owner is to specify the reasons, labour rights campaigners said quoting industrial relations and labour laws.

After Saturday’s apparel industry unrest at Tongi, BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy argued that falling subcontracting jobs put Nippon Garment into financial trouble and forced it to announce the layoff, which, he said, was duly notified. Nippon did not owe its workers any due wages and the factory notified its workers to receive October salary on November 10. Israfil Alam, a lawmaker and apparel industry owner Saturday pointed to a legal grey area and said it was not legally binding on factory owners to inform any authority in advance of closure or layoff. ‘I think the law should be amended,’ said the lawmaker.

-New Age