Sawmill workers demand dues, festival allowance by 25th Ramadan

Sawmill workers on Tuesday demanded payment of all their dues and the festival allowance by 25th Ramadan.
Bangladesh Sawmill Workers Federation's central committee president Md Khalilur Rahman and general secretary Rajat Biswas jointly placed the demand reading out a statement.
They observed that like other sectors' workers, life and livelihood of sawmill workers have also become uncertain due to price spiral of essential commodities, including rice and medicine, while high power and gas tariffs, house rent and transportation cost have added to their sufferings.
In such a situation, a worker has to spend at least Tk150-200 a day for food while a family having six members needs Tk24,000 to meet food expenditures, they explained.
The minimum wages the sawmill workers get can hardly meet their 10 days' expenses, the statement says.
Sawmill workers are deprived of fair wages while many mill owners do not make timely payment of wages, alleges the statement.
The workers are also deprived of other lawful benefits like various leaves, weekly holiday with wages, eight-hour working time, overtime and so on as mill owners do not issue appointment letter, identity card and maintain service book.
Besides, workers may be sacked at any moment and their lives also remain at risk for no minimum safety measures taken by the authorities.
Around 60 per cent workers have the possibility to meet workplace accidents and the factory authorities do not provide treatment facility while there is no provision of compensation for the dead or workers who get maimed, the Federation leaders lamented.
They demanded festival allowance for Eid to be equal to one month's wage and payment of all the dues be made by 25th Ramadan.
They also called for reviewing the minimum wages taking prices of the essential commodities and other living expenditures into consideration.
Their other demands include eight-hour daily working time, issuing appointment letter and ID card to all workers, providing safety equipment during work and implementing other legal provisions.

munni_fe@yahoo.com