Water transport workers have called off their countrywide strike after authorities assured them that their wages would be hiked and a committee would determine their salary structure soon.
Following a meeting of the government body with the workers and vessel owners, labour leaders on Monday announced the decision in presence of State Minister of Labour and Employment Monnujan Sufian.
Bangladesh Naujan Shramik Federation (BNSF) General Secretary Chowdhury Ashiqur Rahman said a committee has been formed to formulate the salary structure and it will hold a meeting on Tuesday. It will publish the gazette in a month after deciding the workers’ salaries.
According to the decision of Monday’s meeting, workers of more than 1,000 tonnes ships will get Tk 1,200 allowance from November and workers of over 1,000 tonnes of cargo ships will get Tk 1,500 allowance till the publication of the gazette notification.
BNSF President Shah Alam said, "We had placed 10 demands. Of them, the main demand is workers’ allowance or wages. The problem can be solved within a month if the people assigned by the state minister perform their duties properly.
“We hope the concerned authorities will be kind to meet our demands. The allowance will be effective from this month.”
Monnujan said, “Employers and workers need to have compassion for each other. The issue is between the authorities, owners and workers. If everyone had done their part, it wouldn’t have to come to this stage.”
The labour leaders also said that the Indian border issue has been entrusted to the chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority. He will talk to the Indian authorities. There will be a meeting soon in India.
Workers of all types of water vessels across the country went on indefinite work abstention from Sunday to press home their demands, including hiking the minimum monthly wage to Tk 20,000.
They said that a worker gets a minimum wage of Tk 7,750 monthly at a time when commodity prices have gone up abnormally.
The strike had brought water transportation — both passenger and goods-carrying vessels — across the country to a grinding halt, causing immense suffering for passengers and losses to businesses.
The workers’ minimum monthly wage was last revised in 2016. Since then, the prices of essentials and living costs have increased several times but their wages remained the same, said the leaders.
The workers have been demanding the rescheduling of wages and allowances for a long time. But the authorities did not pay any heed. Hence, the workers were forced to go on strike, they said.
The workers’ demands also include providing appointment letters, identity cards and service books, the formation of a contributory provident fund and seafarer welfare fund to provide food and sea allowances, and Tk 10 lakh compensation for accidents and death at the workplace.
Besides, they have also demanded relaxation of restrictions on the night-time movement of sand-carrying bulkheads and dredgers, stopping extortion and robbery on waterways, stopping harassment along the Indian border in providing landing passes to workers travelling to India, 100 per cent enforcement of goods transport policy at Chattogram Port to maintain serial of all lightering vessels, cancelling the lease at Charpara Ghat, and stopping all kinds of irregularities and mismanagement by the Department of Shipping.
