Workers at two garment factories in Savar’s Hemayetput, Vertex Group and Standard Group, stopped work and went on strike today (November 2), demanding compensation for the injury of a female worker.

Among them, workers at Neo Fashion Limited, part of the Vertex Group, claimed that a female worker was seriously injured in the leg by a container truck inside the factory at around 7pm last Thursday (October 31).

Despite her injuries, the factory management did not take effective measures to rescue her and take her to the hospital.

She was taken in a critical condition to Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar in a van, where she is still receiving treatment.

This morning, factory workers stopped their work and began protesting inside the factory, demanding adequate compensation for the care and maintenance of the injured worker.

Although the factory management declared today a holiday due to the protest, the workers remained inside the factory premises and continued their demonstration.

Additionally, workers said they have several demands in addition to compensation for injured workers, including an end to mandatory overtime and not being forced to work on scheduled days off.

It is necessary to know the other demands made by the workers. They were still occupying the factory premises at the time of filing this report at 11 am

Meanwhile, workers at Savar’s Standard Group factories (The Civil Engineers Oven Ltd and The Civil Engineers Wash Ltd) stopped work and demanded the dismissal of several staff members.

Seeking anonymity, a factory official said the management accepted some of the workers’ demands when they protested a few days ago.

During that time, management also decided to lay off several staff members, the official said.

However, workers are now demanding that these layoffs be announced directly by the owners, not just by managers. This demand has led to the continuation of the strike, the official added.

Earlier, when the factory workers started a protest with various demands, the management declared both factories closed indefinitely under section 13(1) of the Bangladesh Labor Law with effect from October 30.

Following a reconciliation meeting between workers and owners on October 31, it was decided to reopen the factories from November 1.

Some of the demands made during the previous protest were the increase in night shift allowances, attendance bonuses and the collection of accrued leave days.

Of these, management had accepted and issued notices for 22 demands, covering most of the workers’ requests.