Govt gives BJMC Tk574cr to clear labour dues

The government has allocated Tk 574.14 crore to the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to pay off retirement dues and other liabilities of workers of several closed state-owned mills and dues of raw jute suppliers.

According to a Textiles and Jute Ministry press release issued on Wednesday, the money was allocated to the BJMC earlier this month from the operational loan sector of the revised budget of the outgoing 2021-22 fiscal year.

Of the total, Tk 327.07 crore will be used to pay the dues of 1,980 retired officers and employees, Tk 2,217 crore will pay the dues of 2,216 raw jute suppliers and Tk 12.16 crore will pay the dues of 1,119 store/carrying related suppliers.

Any unspent money will be deposited back into the government’s treasury.

A May 10 Finance Ministry letter said the money will have to be repaid in half-yearly instalments at 5 per cent interest over the next 20 years (including a five-year grace period). BJMC will have to execute a loan agreement with the Finance Division for that, read the release.

Within seven days of spending the allocated money, BJMC will also have to send to the Finance Division a detailed expenditure statement and the lists of all recipients.

On July 2, 2020, the government shut 25 state-owned jute mills down and laid off over 50,000 permanent and temporary workers — citing gradual heavy loss and high maintenance costs as reasons.

The government had promised to pay 24,886 workers through the golden handshake policy, following their voluntary retirement effective from July 1, 2020, as per Bangladesh Labour Law 2006.

According to the ministry, a worker, in general, should receive a minimum of Tk 13.86 lakh and a maximum of Tk 54 lakh.

At the same time, all the dues of 8,956 workers who went into retirement since 2013 and all the irregular workers were supposed to be paid as a one-off payment.

But due to some documental complications, many workers failed to receive their dues. Finance Ministry cleared the latest allocation after BJMC resolved the problems and requested the money to pay off the dues.