Amin Jute Mills on the verge of closure

Agitated Amin Jute Mill workers put up barricade on Chittagong-Nazirhat rail line running through the mill premises demanding payment of arrears. Photo: Star Photo

Amin Jute Mills is a losing concern for the past few years. The unpaid bank loans, and huge arrears in terms of wages, electricity and gas bills, municipality tax and jute procurement stand at around Tk.150 crore.

Labour leaders fear that the mills may face the same fate as Adamjee in near future unless proper measures were taken immediately. On the other hand, thousands of staff and workers are now living in fear of losing jobs, they said.

"We have already been in a sorry state for the last few months without any wage. Can you imagine the sufferings of our family members, especially our children!," a worker said.

Sources said the workers were not getting wages for more than four weeks that approximately amounts to Tk.1.5 crore. The mill has a total of 5,000 workers. Of them, 3400 are permanent and 1600 shifting workers. They get wages on weekly basis. Besides, it has around 1,000 officials and staff and they are also not that much better off than the workers, sources said.

Hundreds of workers came out of the mill and staged agitation for an hour on the road and nearby rail track demanding wages. The workers withdrew their agitation when the authorities paid them one week's wage and assured them of giving arrears soon.

"We paid them Tk.35 lakh as per an arrangement with the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC). The BJMC gave the amount from its emergency fund," General Manager Aiyub Hossain told this correspondent.

Aiyub said the mill has been facing persisting financial crisis. And the authorities are unable to pay the wages regularly.

The mill is to pay Tk.90 lakh interest per month against Tk.90 crore loans from different banks, sources said. Sometime, the interest is not paid, which makes the financial burden heavier. To add further misery, the Mills owes the Power Development Board (PDB) Tk.6 crore as outstanding electricity bill. The mill pays Tk.25 lakh electricity bill monthly, sources said.

Once the mill produced a wide variety of items. Now it produces only five to six items as per a government order in recent time, sources said.

Meanwhile, the mill authorities in April sent some proposals to the finance and planning ministry to save the mill.