Ain o Shalish Kendra (ASK) expresses grave concern over the clash between Police and garments workers at Ashulia industrial area. The clashes centered on labour unrest regarding the demand for increasing the minimum wage structure and against the subsequent closure of the factories for indefinite period.

According to the online editions of some news papers, labour unrest has been going on in Ashulia Industrial area for the last few days due to unmet demands of workers. Due to this unrest, the garments owners’ association BGMEA and BKMEA, in a late night meeting, decided to shutdown all apparel units in Ashulia for an indefinite period of time. In protest of this decision, thousands of garment workers got together and started their demonstration. Some incidents of vandalization and torching of cars occurred. In order to get the situation under control, the law enforcement personnel charged the demonstrators with sticks and threw tear gas to break them up. Due to the continuous clashes that raged between thousands of law enforcement personnel and garment workers the area transformed into a battle zone.

We think violent confrontation is not the only way to reach a solution in this kind of clashes rather it should be done through dialogue and discussion. The unilateral decision by the garments owners to shutdown the factories was not helpful at all in this case. It is damaging to the owners, the workers and also the country. We also condemn and protest the police atrocity in such situations.

Our opinion in this regard is that due to years of negligence and delay in taking proper measures to address the numerous problems that exist in this sector; we are facing the explosive nature of the situation of today.