DOT Desk: Vehicles started to move on the busy Airport Road in Dhaka after the protesting ready-made garments workers withdrew the blockade that was imposed around yesterday noon, reports The Daily Star.
The workers cleared the road around 3:00pm following requests from the law enforcers as the blockade resulted in heavy traffic in the area.
Around 12noon yesterday, the workers of ‘Chaiti’ garment factory took to the streets between Jashimuddin and Abdullahpur in Uttara, Officer-in-charge of Uttara Pashchim Police Station Ali Hossain said.
At many points, they were seen carrying sticks and blocking the road, according to the Facebook group Traffic Alert.
Police officials through loudspeakers asked the garments workers to remove the blockade following a negotiation between the RMG owners and garments’ workers on the spot.
Owing to the blockade, traffic was either not moving at many points or was moving very slowly in the area, police said.
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.
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