Over 100 RMG units yet to pay workers’ wage, fest allowance

More than 100 readymade garment factories are yet to pay the wages and festival allowances to their workers till Tuesday, trade union leaders claimed.

However, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said the number of factories not to pay the wages and allowances are only 47.

According to data provided by the BGMEA, out of 1,913 factories – 1,667 in Dhaka and 246 in Chattogram – 1,866 factories paid workers’ wages for the month of April and festival allowances for Eid-ul-Fitr.

Trade union leaders rejected the data and said that many factories are yet to pay wages for the month of April and some factories only paid festival allowances.

"From our representatives in several factories, we came to know that about 100 factories did not pay wages for the month of April but they paid the bonus," Sirajul Islam Rony, President of the Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League, told The Business Post.

On condition of paying the wages on Wednesday, the factory owners paid the festival allowance, he said.

He hoped that the factory owners would pay the wages in time and there would be no dispute over the payment as the BGMEA leaders were trying to coordinate with banks to help the owners to pay, he added.

Nazma Akter, President of Sammilito Garments Sramik Federation, also refuted the claim of BGMEA, saying that number of factories not paying wages and allowances is much higher.

“This is obviously much higher than 47 factories. The problem persists more in Chattogram than Dhaka,” she said.

The BGMEA also said 97.54 per cent of factories already paid wages for April and 99.9 per cent of factories paid festival allowances to their workers.

In Dhaka, 15 factories would pay only wages for April on Wednesday and eight factories would pay only festival allowances on Wednesday. In Chattogram, 32 factories would pay only wages on Wednesday and 23 would pay only festival allowance on the day, according to the BGMEA.
Earlier, the state minister for labour and employment Monnujan Sufian asked the apparel factory owners to pay their workers' wages and festival allowances by May 10.