Jute mills workers besiege BJMC office, demanding arrears

A number of workers laid siege to the office of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) at Motijheel in Dhaka on Monday, demanding their arrears and reopening of the closed mills.

They staged demonstrations to realise their demands taking position in front of the BJMC building from 11:30am and left the spot around 5:00pm after the BJMC authorities assured them of settling the issues.

The demonstrators said that the government announced the closure of 26 state-owned jute mills on July 2, 2020 and thus about 70,000 workers became unemployed.

Ruhul Amin, coordinator of the Workers-Farmers-Students-People Unity for the Protection of Jute Mills, said though the mills were declared closed all together, the workers of Khalishpur Jute Mills, Daulatpur Jute Mills, National Jute Mills, RR Jute Mills, and KFD Jute Mills were yet to be paid.

“The workers are not responsible in any way for the losses the mills incurred during operations and their subsequent shutdown. Rather, it was the role of BJMC whose wrong policy, mismanagement and corruption led to the closure. As a result, the workers lost their jobs and have been continuing to suffer,” he said.

During closing the mills, Ruhul said, the government announced to pay all arrears of the workers within two months, and reopen the mills by three months. “But, there is no sign of implementing the directives.”

He, however, demanded that the jute mills be reopened immediately and the workers be given back employment.

While staging the demonstrations, an eight-member delegation of the demonstrators met BJMC Chairman Muhammad ‍Salehuddin at his office and held a meeting.

“The chairman gave us assurance over solving the issues after discussing those with the higher authorities,” Ruhul Amin told The Business Post.