Labour leaders on 5 February (Friday) demanded not to lay off garment workers for more than 45 days.
According to media reports, National Garment Workers’ Federation (NGWF) has called for a maximum lay-off period of 45 days at a human chain organised in front of Dhaka’s National Press Club.
Addressing the people there, NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin, reportedly, maintained that earlier if there was less or no work in the factories, workers would be laid off for the first 45 days and an additional 15 days, which made the total lay-off period to maximum of 60 days and, employers then had to compensate the workers according to their reinstatement or dismissal but in the recent months, factory owners have been laying off the workers for months, providing only 40 per cent of their salaries, Amin added while underlining this is having an adverse impact on the workers.
To overcome such a situation and protect the workers’ interests, the speakers (at the human chain) called for a maximum lay-off period of 45 days even as labour leaders alleged that factory owners were harassing the workers by increasing the lay-off period to 3, 4, or even 5 months under various pretexts and paying the workers nominal wages, forcing them to find employment elsewhere, which they claimed, is in the interest of the factory owners since they do not have to pay compensation in such a scenario.
