"Garment workers demonstrate for dues", 3 February 2019

A group of workers of a jacket exporter have been staging demonstrations inside their workplace for the past five days demanding unpaid salaries and service benefits after its owner shut it abruptly.

“We have been staying on the eighth floor of the building since January 28 as the factory owner is not paying our dues after the closure announcement,” said..a machine operator of Luman Fashions Ltd...Some 600 of the factory's 800 or so workers are staging the demonstration...

...If the management cannot mobilise the money to pay the arrears, the owner will have to sell off the machinery to make the payments, said the workers...[T]he workers have been staying on the floor mainly to prevent the management from removing the machinery. “We can't demonstrate on the streets as there is a possibility of police harassment,”...

...[The] president of the Bangladesh Garment Industrial Workers Federation, said: “The owner has already reached an agreement with the BGMEA and union leaders to pay the service benefits for the workers in March.”...He said the owner has been facing troubles in running business as he is not making profits, leading to the closure...

Lutfor Rahman, managing director of Luman Fashions, did not receive phone calls or respond to SMSs.