The workers roughed up manager of Impressive Apparels Limited Mustafijur Rahman alias Jakir Hossain and then staged a demonstration in front of the factory building blocking the busy Outer Circular Road at 3:20pm.

Ramna police baton-charged and dispersed them after about two hours injuring around 10.

Hossain was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with wounds in head, chest, stomach and hands.

The workers were spurred into the fire and fury when Hossain beat machine operator Abdul Jalil in his office at 3:00pm allegedly for demanding their outstanding overtime pays.

"I asked manager when he would pay our overtime bills, which he had not been paying for the last two months, though the payment is usually made by the end of every month," Jalil told The Daily Star yesterday.

Instead of answering the query, the manager picked a quarrel asking Jalil why his fingers were dirty and at one stage struck the operator on his head with a tube-light, the workers narrated. Hossain then beat Jalil with a stick, they added.

The workers alleged Rahman, who had joined the factory two months ago, used to beat them whenever they demanded any dues and accused him of embezzling their money.

Hearing Jalil's cry and finding him bleeding, around 50 workers including women stormed into the manager's chamber, beat him with tube-lights and ransacked the room.

The furious workers also damaged some machines on the third floor of the factory building and beat the security guards that rushed in to rescue the manager.

Talking to The Daily Star Hossain denied the allegations against him and said some 60 workers demanding due payments despoiled factory machines and then attacked him.

The workers rushed out of the building hitting and shoving the security guards aside. They blocked Outer Circular Road yelling slogans against the manager and demanding their dues until police dispersed them after a couple of hours.

The factory management later fixed dates for settling the workers' dues in phases and declared the factory closed for two days from today.

On August 31 last, a large section of around 900 employees of the factory observed a strike demanding the dues. That day the manager persuaded them to withdraw the strike, the workers said, assuring to pay them on September 4, the day the managing director of the company was scheduled to return from abroad.

Impressive Apparels Managing Director Khorshed Alam termed yesterday's incident a feud between the manger and the employees and claimed a loss of Tk one crore.