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The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Wednesday claimed that 97.54 per cent of factory owners already paid their workers’ wage for the month of April and 99 per cent of owners paid their festival allowances.
The remaining owners would complete payment of wage and allowance by Wednesday evening.
BGMEA president Faruque Hassan made the announcement at a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.
However, the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association also claimed that all the factories of their members have paid wages and bonuses fully.
According to data provided by the BGMEA, as of Tuesday out of 1,913 factories, 1,866 or 97.54 per cent paid workers wages for the month of April, while 99 per cent or 1,882 factories paid a festival allowance for Eid ul-Fitr.
The remaining 47 apparel factories located in Dhaka and Chattogram will complete the payment of wages by Wednesday evening and 31 factories also will pay a bonus.
“The world is going through a crucial time due to the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and we are not out of it.”
Factory owners are facing a cash shortage as the global buyers cancelled work orders and delayed payment. But they have paid the workers dues, said Hassan.
Usually, workers enjoy four to eight-day holidays during Eid festival and it is adjusted from the holidays as mentioned in the laws. But this year the holidays for Eid are only three days as per the government directive, said the business leader.
Hasan said the government asked them not to increase the holidays instructed the workers to at their working area amid the lockdown to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
“In line with the government directive, I am requesting the workers not to leave working areas or travel to home for the sake of health safety and to avoid infection,” said the business leader.
BKMEA’s first vice-president Mohammad Hatem told The Business Post, “despite a shortage of cash flow due to delayed payment by the brands and buyers and fewer work orders than the capacity, our members with the help of banks have paid workers wages and festival allowances,”.
On the other hand, there was no dispute over the holidays as the factory owners set the vacation in consultation with the trade union leaders and workers welfare committee said the business leader.
“From the home ministry and detective branch of police, we have received a list of 30 factories, which may face problems in paying wages and bonuses in time. But talking to those factory owners, we found that there were no problems in paying workers wages,” BTMA secretary Monsoor Ahmed told The Business Post.
Usually, the textile sector does not witness unrest over non-payment or delayed payment to workers. As of today, all the BTMA members' factories paid wages for the month of April and bonus, he added.
