Ready-made garments workers today blocked the Airport Road in Dhaka resulting in heavy traffic in the area.
They also allegedly torched a bus of Ena Paribahan, when this report was filed at 1:20pm.
The garment factory workers were blocking both sides of the road at various points from Jashimuddin to Abdullahpur in Uttara, said Officer-in-charge of Uttara Pashchim Police Station Ali Hossain Khan.
Owing to the blockade, traffic is either not moving at many points or is moving very slowly in the area, the official said.
Police officials have been announcing over loudspeakers, asking the garments workers to remove the blockade.
RMG owners tried to negotiate with the garments’ workers on the spot but the outcome is yet to be known.
At many points, the workers were seen carrying sticks and blocking the road on Jashimuddin Avenue in Uttara, according to the Facebook group Traffic Alert.
The workers have alleged that the monthly wage in the seventh grade increased to Tk 8,000 from Tk 5,300 as per the latest gazette published by the government last year. But, the salary of the workers in other grades did not increase at the same rate.
The salary hike for the entry-level workers was more than that of their senior operators, who have been working for more than seven to eight years. The new wage has been effective from December 1. Major disparity in the salary hike was noticed in the third and fourth grades as their salaries were not raised like that of entry-level workers.
In most of the grades, other than the seventh, only Tk 500 was raised in the new salary structure, whereas an entry-level worker's salary had increased by Tk 2,700 at one go.
