Staff Reporter :
A total of 229 garments factory owners, who are members of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), have not paid workers’ bonus for the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, as of Wednesday.
Despite the government’s directive to give bonuses on July 27, 1669 out of 1898 BGMEA member factories have given bonus to their workers.
This development came as a big shock to many poor apparel workers as they have to celebrate Eid this time without money. Worker leaders expressed dissatisfaction over the non-payment of bonus by the factories saying it is not acceptable when government provided them stimulus fund to pay the workers.
Earlier, the government announced a Tk 5000cr fund for export-oriented sectors to pay workers’ wages for three months, beginning from March, to face the Covid-19 pandemic impact.
An additional amount of Tk 2500cr has been disbursed to provide wage from the Tk 30,000cr fund.
As per BGMEA data, still 12 percent of the factories have not paid the bonus.
In the Dhaka metropolitan area, 56 out of 322 factories did not pay bonus.
Besides, located in Gazipur area, 71 out of 713 factories and 41 in Saver-Ashulia, 20 in Narayangonj, 37 in Chattogram and 4 in other areas did not pay bonus.
The Director of BGMEA Mohammed Nasir said, he don’t know this matter.
However, they are still trying heart and soul to manage the fund to resolve the crisis, said BGMEA.
S.M. Mannan (Kochi), vice-president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said, “This is our proposal for this Eid as our business is not going well. We are just continuing our business now. We are not making profits.”
He hopes, “Everyone will give bonus before Eid by negotiating with the workers.”
Earlier on July 20, State Minister for Labour and Employment, Mannujan Sufian said that the RMG factories would pay bonus for the Eid-ul-Adha to their workers by July 27.
The State Minister was said that half salary of the current month’s salary will be paid by July 30.
