Labour Adviser Sakhawat in Sreemangal : Tea workers asked to find owners who ran away without paying salaries
Nur Muhammad Sagor, Srimangal (Moulvibazar)
If tea garden owners flee abroad without paying their workers' salaries, they will be tracked down and their salaries will be recovered, warned Brigadier General (Retd) Dr. M Sakhawat Hossain, Adviser to the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
He said this as the chief guest at a view-exchange meeting with tea workers' union leaders at the Srimangal Divisional Labour Office in Moulvibazar on Saturday afternoon.
He said, "The police administration has been asked to take action by tracing the relatives of those who fled abroad without paying their dues."
He also stated that the lack of latrines in the tea workers' workplaces was inhumane and directed the District Administrator to install latrines, provide hygienic sanitation, and clean water as soon as possible.
The advisor assured that the tea workers would be provided with fixed accommodation, salary structure and organization selection after their employment. He further said, "The District Administrator has also been instructed to collect a fee of 20 taka from those who visit the tea gardens." He further said, "Where one has to pay a pound and a euro to see a flower abroad, why not charge a fee to tourists visiting the tea gardens in our country?"
The program was presided over by Labor Secretary AHM Shafiquzzaman. The program was addressed by Omar Mohammad Imrul Mohsin, Director General of the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments, Moulvibazar Deputy Commissioner Md. Israil Hossain, Superintendent of Police M. K. H. Jahangir Hossain and Srimangal Upazila Executive Officer Mohammad Islam Uddin. At that time, Director General of the Department of Labor Md. Abdus Samad Al Azad, Additional Director General of the Department of Labor Shah Abdul Tariq and Divisional Deputy Director Mohabbat Hossain and other senior officials were present.
At this time, tea workers' leaders also spoke at the meeting and handed over a memorandum of their demands to the advisor.
Earlier, the Adviser planted saplings on the event premises, inaugurated the new building of the Department of Factories and Inspection in Srimangal, and at 9 am, inaugurated and participated in a workshop on child labor organized by the ILO at the city's elite hotel Grand Sultan Tea Resort & Golf.
