Sugar mill workers stare at uncertain future

Workers at state-owned sugar mills have not been paid for months, forcing them to lead miserable lives without hopes for a better tomorrow.

Hadisur Rahman, (pseudonym) a security guard at Shyampur Sugar Mills at Badarganj Upazila of Rangpur, say the workers there had not been paid after May. The government halted production at the mill late last year to cut losses.

“We repeatedly requested the authorities concerned to pay our arrears but our requests fell on deaf ears. We can’t even demonstrate now given how small our number is,” he said.

The situation is similar at 14 other state-owned mills. In Dinajpur, Setabganj Sugar Mills’ worker Selim Mia (pseudonym) said their salaries had always been irregular. “We were last paid in July after a month of demonstration,” he said.

Md Ahsan Habib, managing director of Shyampur Sugar Mills, said 116 workers and employees had not been paid since May.

“I wrote to the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) to allocate funds for overdue wages, but they have yet to decide. I requested BSFIC, in charge of 15 state-owned sugar mills, to transfer the workers to other factories and most of them have already been transferred,” he said.

BSFIC data show over Tk 38 crore was due in workers’ wages until November.

The government stopped production at six mills due to huge losses, making the fate of workers at these mills uncertain.

Setabganj Sugar Mills have Tk 6.88 crore dues, Shyampur Sugar Mills Tk 4.66 crore, Rajshahi Sugar Mills Tk 5.70 crore, Thakurgaon Sugar Mills Tk 3.2 crore, Panchagarh Sugar Mills Tk 2.13 crore, Joypurhat Sugar Mills Tk 3.17 crore, Natore Sugar Mills Tk 3.31 crore, North Bengal Sugar Mills Tk 1.78 crore, Mobarakganj Sugar Mills Tk 1.6 crore, Faridpur Sugar Mills Tk 1.2 crore, Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills Tk 1.83 crore, Rangpur Sugar Mills Tk 0.98 crore, Pabna Sugar Mills Tk 0.9 crore, and Kushtia Sugar Mills Tk 0.4 crore.

BSFIC insiders said the workers’ wages had been irregular for the last three years. They often had to resort to demonstrations for salaries. A BSFIC official said wages were usually paid after long intervals.

“We are now focusing on sugarcane procurement and will deal with workers’ salaries after that,” BSFIC Secretary Chowdhury Ruhul Ameen Kaiser told The Business Post.

After the government shut production at six mills, the finance ministry allocated funds to continue operations at the remaining mills. “That’s why we could not pay dues of the six mills’ workers. We’ve sought fresh allocations for this purpose and will pay the workers after getting the fund,” he said.

He said the irregular payment was a regular feature but wages of Setabganj and Shyampur mills workers were long overdue.

BSFIC lost Tk 3,976 crore in the last five years alone and despite shutting operations at six mills, it incurred more losses last season. The corporation incurred Tk 1,005 crore losses in fiscal year 2020-21, up from Tk 970 crore in FY19-20, BSFIC data show.

Currently, the corporation has around Tk 8,692 crore in bank liabilities, while its total assets are worth around Tk 30,000 crore.