Sacked Factory Staff Fight for Eid Payments as AAFA Urges ‘Justice’ for Murdered Union Leader
Workers demonstrating outside the closed gates of Bangladesh’s Panna Textile Limited last Monday are hoping management will dole out pending payments after they claim they were improperly terminated amid a hasty factory shutdown.
The factory, located in the Khagan area of Dhaka‘s Savar suburb, reportedly stop operating on June 25, just days before the Eid holiday, according to the factory workers.
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“What happened was that on May 25, 26 and 29, the factory management retrenched 390 workers just before the Eid holidays,” Rafiqul Islam Sujan, central committee president of Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF) told Sourcing Journal. “Then the Eid holiday ended, all the factories opened, but Panna never reopened. When the 240 remaining workers came to work, they just saw a notice that the factory was closed, and they would be informed when it opened. There was no signature or anything on the sign.”
Because Panna doesn’t have its own union, workers approached Sujan’s organization for help, he said.
“After lot of discussions and protests, the payment of the 243 workers agreed on July 25, and this is only the basic payment of approximately 4000 takas or approximately $36.52—not any of the gratuities, bonus, etc that are due and not for all the workers,” he said.
“We are still negotiating for these,” Sujan continued. “We are demanding an immediate reopening of the factory and reinstatement of the workers. Their past dues should be settled too.“By this time, many of the workers had returned to their hometown or to other cities but the factory manager says is that only those workers who came to the factory will get a settlement. The factory management wanted the complete factory identity cards, and I have been working on completing the list, and have so far completed 313 workers.”
However, Sujan said factory management told him that “if we go against them, we will not succeed.”
Factory executives recently called him into their corporate offices to discuss the situation.
“They have agreed to pay the one-month wages to some of the workers. After I sent the list to the management on Saturday, one of the management officials called and asked for my help in the settlement of this and verbally promised him they would pay the workers on August 17,” Sujan said, reiterating that these were minimum payments. “But as far as the factory opening, there is still no information.”
Workers also allege that the factory didn’t give workers formal contracts, and that many dismissed workers were child laborers.
Although calls to Panna Textiles management went unanswered, general manager Abdul Razzak previously addressed the global economic challenges and yarn prices making it difficult for smaller players to survive.
Panna Textile is not an exporter, and consequently not a part of the powerful Bangladesh Garment and Manufacturer Exporters Association (BGMEA) organization. Though the watershed Rana Plaza disaster brought newfound attention to worker safety in Bangladesh through the Accord, Alliance and subsequent efforts, smaller factories the sub-contractors continually fall through the cracks, and remain a source of concern.
While industry analysts said that many smaller factories are finding it hard to deal with high gas and electricity prices and similar challenges, others point to the resilience of Bangladesh’s apparel production industry, which accounts for 80 percent of the nation’s exports. Larger manufacturers have reported growth, and according to analysts account for a significant part of the apparel sector’s 10 percent growth in the last financial year ending June 30, to $46.9 billion.
Results announced Wednesday by the Export Promotion Board showed that Bangladesh’s July exports grew by 15.26 percent to $4.59 billion from $3.98 billion in the same month last year. This was primarily driven by the apparel sector, which grew 4.65 percent over the government target for this sector of $3.78 billion.
The government is aiming for $62 billion in goods exports for the financial year ending June 2024.
“We are hearing both types of stories—of smaller factories shutting down, and of the high resilience. I tend to think both are correct,” said Monika Hartsel, deputy country program director-Bangladesh, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO, the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization helping workers attain safe and healthy workplaces.
“We have seen situations like this at Panna, for years, especially at small factories it is common for factory owners if they cannot—or do not want to pay—especially before Eid when they have to pay bonus that they will close down without paying, sometimes for a few months, so the workers go back to their homes or take up jobs as rickshaw pullers, and we will see those factories reopen or pop up in a different form after. That’s been going on for a long time, I wouldn’t say it’s something new,” she said.
Factories of this size typically don’t have registered trade unions, she said. “Sujan is part of a trade union federation that operates in that area, so a federation may intervene—that was the same with Prince Jacquard Sweaters, Shahidul Islam Shahid was not a leader in that factory, but was called in to help since there wasn’t a union in that factory,” said Hartsel. “When workers are fed up and have no other recourse to engage in dialogue with the management, this becomes the only way to negotiate.”
Islam was assaulted and beaten to death allegedly after meeting garment factory employees fighting for unpaid salaries in June, causing concern about the safety of workers and unions.
While Shahid’s case chilled the industry, union leaders like Sujan continue to fight for workers rights. Last week, Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) expressed “deep concern” about “certain pressing worker welfare issues that demand immediate action”, in a July 27 letter addressed to prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Expressing outrage at Islam’s murder, Lamar noted that the killing was “not only an immeasurable loss for his family and friends but also represents a setback for workers’ rights and the overall welfare of workers in Bangladesh.”
Islam’s case, Lamar added, was the “worst in a series of growing attacks against unions, from violent assaults against labor leaders to delays and denials of registration for new unions.
“Freedom of association is vital for safeguarding workers’ rights, ensuring proper working conditions, and promoting a harmonious labor ecosystem,” he wrote. Lamar urged the Bangladesh government to continue constructive dialogue with unions, facilitate new union registration, and condemn any violence, threats or intimidation to foster an environment that respects workers’ collective bargaining rights and empower them as essential stakeholders in the nation’s progress.
“We join the U.S. government in calling for the pursuit of justice to hold accountable those responsible for his death and to send a strong message that such heinous acts will not be tolerated,” Lamar noted, saying the government must establish a fair remuneration for garment workers in the upcoming minimum wage board review.
