A TOTAL of 370 readymade garment (RMG) factories have failed to pay salaries and wages to their workers and employees within the deadline set mutually by the government and the industry owners ended on April 16, an official report says. The non-payment has led to immense miseries to some 1,58,000 workers and employees amid a lockdown in face of deadly contagious Coronavirus outbreak in the country, claimed a report prepared by Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The government’s stimulus package for RMG industry will cover salaries and wages for March, April and May; and the government will monitor implementation of this funds. If this is going according to plan then why haven’t the workers received their due salaries yet? The factories are in trouble as many foreign buyers have cancelled their work orders which affected at least 1142 factories and over 3 million workers.
The factories which are in trouble must be helped by the government. Unfortunately crony capitalism must not be allowed to interfere in the decision making process of who gets the funds–otherwise only those factories with strong political connections will end up getting the funds. So this type of looting must be checked. But with an administration which is both dysfunctional and myopic this will be difficult to achieve. The factories resemble our best chance at employment generation for our poorly skilled masses. The remedial funds which they rightly deserve must not be tampered with.
The funds must reach those factories which have lost the most orders—not those which have political links with the administration.
