Unity in Numbers

In on area of Dhaka one partner NGO has 2 worker’s groups made up of workers from one garments factory in Dhaka. Group members shared with NGO staff that their factory management has not been paying workers’ yearly leave encashment when the payment was due by January 2018. In the mid- February 2018 all workers gathered and collectively demanded that the factory pay them their due money immediately. All workers simultaneously stopped working for over one hour. This put pressure on factory management to sit with the workers and dismissively said they would pay them later. The workers were displeased with the stance of the factory management. This is because, management had said the exact same thing in the year before, but ultimately they did not pay the owed amount to the workers. At that time there were no unity among workers, and they were not able to form a united front to raise their voice as one. Now that there are 2 worker’s groups made up of 40 workers, they have unity to raise their voice collectively. With this in mind, the workers kept pressuring management to provide them with a fixed and a final date by which they would pay the workers their yearly leave encashment.

Finally factory management committed to pay the amount within one week. Keeping to their word and commitment, after one week, factory management paid the amount owed to all the workers.

One worker shared that “we were ready to take legal action if our factory management did not pay us like before. We are grateful to the NGO for making us aware of the benefit of collective voice and unity.”