Tannery workers await job assurance at Savar units

Many tannery workers are still not getting the assurance of job security or service benefits as the units shift from Hazaribagh to Savar.

Nearly 20 out of the 30 unionised tannery factories have already given job assurance letters to their workers. The remaining units are only making promises to do so, said workers at Hazaribagh yesterday.

“I hope the owners will give the assurance certificates to workers soon,” said Shahin Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Tanners Association, adding that no deadline has been set for the owners.

Ahmed said the tanners should have been given at least four months to settle issues such as the workers' assurance certificates. “But the Department of Environment disconnected the utility connections to factories all on a sudden.”

The majority of the permanent workers of unionised factories would be employed at the Savar units, but the fate of the temporary or contractual workers are yet to be determined, Ahmed added.

The Hazaribagh tanneries have more than 25,000 permanent workers and upwards of 30,000 temporary workers.

A total of 154 factories are shifting to Savar from Hazaribagh. The assurance letter is imperative, said some aggrieved workers. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the owners will employ them at the Savar units.

“The management at my factory said they will give the assurance letters within two or three days. They have been promising to do so for many days now,” said Mohammad Azad, a machine operator.

Many workers have been employed in factories for 20 to 30 years and they have to present evidence of their employment duration to avail their service benefits, said SM Monjurul Hoque, a union leader of a factory. The major service benefits of the tannery workers are gratuities, annual earned leave benefits, provident fund and other allowances. If the workers are not given their assurance certificates, they might not be able to claim service benefits or jobs at the new factory sites.

The owners are also not implementing the bilateral agreement that was signed between the owners and workers in January 2016, assuring them of accommodation, canteens, mosques, schools and hospitals at the Savar tannery estate, said Abdul Malek, general secretary of the Tannery Workers Union. As per the agreement, the owners only increased 25 percent of the basic salaries of the workers, apart from annual increment, said workers.

Every year, the tanners are also supposed to give the permanent status to 40 percent of temporary workers. But they are not giving it to even 20 percent of workers.

The owners were supposed to implement the agreement within a month of signing it, but it has not been implemented even after a year and four months.

The owners and government should at least establish a 50-bed hospital at the Savar tannery estate for the treatment of workers as there is a high risk of injuries.

The tanners started shifting their machinery and office equipment as the DoE disconnected the power, gas and water supplies to the factories on April 8.

The workers said they have been passing tough days without water, gas and power supplies, especially the women and children who lived on the factory premises.