The half of the unpaid wages of protesting jute mill workers who are now on strike will be cleared by the next week, State Minister for Textile and Jute Mirza Azam has said. "Half of the unpaid wages will be paid now while the rest gradually," he told UNB recently.
Mirza Azam urged the workers to end their protest and return to their factories, warning that their wages of the days they are wasting in protest will be deducted. Almost 26,718 workers of eight Khulna-Jessore region's state-owned jute mills have been on strike since December 28 last year to realise their 11-point demand, including their due wages.
According to official sources, the workers, including 650 in Crescent Jute Mill, 2,000 in Eastern Jute Mill and 1,500 in Alim Jute Mill owe over Tk 40.68 crore in arrears. Their protest and the subsequent strike were reportedly orchestrated by the jute mills' collective bargaining agents (CBAs) and non-CBA union leaders.
Executive convener of the CBA and Non-CBA Council Sohrab Hossain told UNB that although the Pay Commission has been in effect since 2015, the workers' wage board has still not be realised, resulting in irregular wage payments by the mill owners. According to sources at Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), the jute mills, now in strike, usually produce 225 tonnes of jute goods a day.
The mills currently contain 21,474 tonnes of jute, waiting to be distributed in the market, worth Tk 215 crore. BJMC was established under Article 10 of Bangladesh Indus-trial Enterprises (Nationa-lization) Order 1972 (PO 27 of 1972) with the aim and objective of controlling, supervising and coordinating the activities of jute mills nationalized and placed under it.
As the largest manufacturer in the jute sector, the BJMC produces mainly hessian cloths, different types of hessian bags, sacking cloth, sacking bags, yarn, geo-jute, blanket, jute canvas and carpet backing cloth (CBC) made from jute, the longest natural fibre in the world.
At present, the BJMC is the biggest employer in the industrial sector of the country. It provides direct employment to about70,000 workers and 5,500 officers and staff supporting the livelihood of around 6.0 million farm families. More than 50 million people are directly or indirectly involved with jute and the jute industry.
-UNB, Dhaka
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