HUNDREDS of readymade garment factory workers in Dhaka, Savar, Narayanganj and Gazipur took to the streets from Sunday to Wednesday demanding wages of the previous months and arrears. Against this backdrop, the government has instructed RMG industry owners to pay the salary of March to the workers by 16 April. The government has already announced a stimulus package of Tk 5000 crore for the garments sector to pay the salary of the workers as the Corona outbreak responsible for cancelling US$6 billion pre-order products. We urge the industry owners to be humane with the low-income garment workers during this pandemic.
The workers were forced to take to the streets as many of them were not paid their wages for the last month which was supposed to be cleared by the 10th day of the following month. Many workers are in miserable condition as they are neither getting any food assistance from the government nor their wages from the factory owners. Of them, workers of Fakir Knitwear demonstrated from morning till afternoon on Sunday protesting the sacking of workers. The factory authorities took their ID cards and signatures while paying the wages, sparking protest among the workers. BGMEA last week said that over 2 million workers whose jobs got affected will remain employed but continue to get their wages for the next two months. We know that the entire world is undergoing an unprecedented situation and RMG sector is the worst victim of the lockdown. We ask the government, NGOs and INGOs to come forward with a new project to cope with after COVID-19 labour market demand. The pandemic will unveil many unpleasant realities of the country’s economy that must be addressed with appropriateness.
We find the role of BGMEA in this regard is very weak. It seems the BGMEA leaders even can’t realize what the situation could be if the shutdown period extends.
