Compensate laid off temporary jute mill workers

Shutting down all 25 of the jute mills in the country in July, quite abruptly, was like cutting off the head to cure the headache. These were closed, we were told, because the BJMC had run up huge losses, which the state could no longer bear. While the wisdom of the decision is open to question, it can be said without fear of refutation that the closure has created another kind of problem for the state—the plight of the axed temporary workers. While the government, we are informed, has set aside Tk 500 crore for the permanent laid off workers, the temporary workers have been left high and dry, without a farthing to take home. Can the government afford to ignore them?  

We ought to stress here that the word "temporary" used to refer to replacement workers is misplaced here. Even more unacceptable is the fact that the managements of these mills have cheated the so-called temporary workers by tinkering with the provisions that govern the rules of employment and pay and emoluments of temporary workers. Some of these "temporary" workers have been working for more than a decade, and whereas, a permanent worker, working for that long will have a hefty sum in his or her pocket after being laid-off, the poor temporary workers will find themselves, more than 8,000 of them, on the streets, literally panhandling.

It is a gross injustice when poor, and in most cases illiterate, people are cheated of their dues for the labour they have given all these years because the management has applied the rules in the most deceitful, unethical and immoral way. The temporary workers were terminated only a few days before the expiry of the three or six months' probation period, as applicable, and re-employed, to avoid making them permanent. 

We would call upon the government not to turn a blind eye to the plight of these temporary workers. If rules can be distorted for an insincere purpose, it can be adapted for honest and humane causes too. Give the temporary jute mill workers their dues.