Water transport workers call strike demanding appointment letter, food allowance

The water transport workers have enforced a country-wide strike to press home for an 11-point charter of demand, including appointment letter and food allowance, from 12:01am on Saturday.

The strike has potentially halted water transport operations on the 43 routes linking the southern districts to the rest of the country.

“Our strike started at 12:01am. But MV-Russell was allowed to leave Sadarghat for Chandpur at 12:30am. No vessel will operate after this,” said Shah Alam, president of Bangladesh Water Transport Workers’ Federation.

He said the workers have long been demonstrating over their demands, but the launch owners only gave assurances instead of meeting those, reports bdnews24.com.

Ham Jalal, a member of Inland Navigation and Passenger Transport Association, said the launch owners had struck a five-year deal with the river transport workers in 2016, accepting their main demands.

“The deal is ending in 2021. So the workers’ strike is unreasonable,” he said.

According to Shah Alam, the authorities had published a gazette announcing only one demand on salary scale out of 15 at the time.

Labour ministry spokesman Akhtar Hossain said the Department of Shipping in Wednesday’s meeting decided to include the workers’ appointment letter, identity card and service book in an annual survey checklist to monitor these.

The government has also decided in principle to provide the workers with food allowance.

The decisions would be implemented by March, 2020 through inter-ministerial meetings, Akhtar said.

But Shah Alam said the workers want the demands to be met, not promises any more.