Bangladesh’s Dacca Dyeing Garments a concern of Palmal Group, has shut down for an indefinite period amidst workers’ demonstration. They had terminated 152 workers recently. A notification on closure was posted on the gates of the factories signed by a director of the factory. The notification said that the factories were shut with effect from November 7, 2015 under Section 13(1) of the Bangladesh Labour Act.

In the event of an illegal strike by any section or department of any establishment, the section empowers an employer to shut down either wholly or partly such section or department. Also, the workers who participated in the illegal strike may not be paid any wages for such a shutdown.

Due to the provocation of some unruly workers, all workers of the factory started a strike in the factory to get a number of illegal demands met with, stated Mahatab Uddin, one of the directors of the company. He added that the workers did not allow resuming production despite repeated attempts and considering the situation, the authorities decided to close the factory until further announcement.

Workers had alleged that the authorities of Dacca Dyeing had terminated the said workers as they were attempting to form a trade union. The factory authorities though, denied the allegation and said that they terminated some extra work force as the factory’s export orders declined.

The workers staged a demonstration in the unit and demanded reinstatement of terminated workers and rights for forming trade union and even put forth a set of demands to the authorities and continued with the demonstration.