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Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) today said all the factories paid wages and bonuses to facilitate their workers to celebrate Eid-Ul-Azha with their near and dear ones.
“To the best of our knowledge, no one has been left out… the team at BGMEA has been vigilant and has diligently supervised,” BGMEA President Dr Ruban Huq told media.
BGMEA said it monitored 278 small and medium vulnerable factories and found all the member factories paid the workers timely.
“So far, we have not heard any chaos over non-payment to the workers,” Abdus Salam, Director General of Industrial Police, told BSS today.
He said some small factories, which are not members of BGMEA or Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), are still paying to the workers. “I hope their payment would be cleared within 7-8pm today,” he said.
According to the Industrial Police, as of 3:30pm today, some 95.38 percent or 3,668 factories paid the salary for the month of July to the workers while some 97.89 percent or 3,764 factories paid the bonus to the workers.
The total number of garment factories, including those who are not members of BGMEA and BKMEA, is 3,846.
“In spite of all the difficulties that our industry has faced recently with costs going up for over 30 percent, with difficulties of financially sustaining the sector covering all factories-starting from small, medium and large, our members have been able to send our workers home in a festive mood by covering their salary and bonus,” said Rubana Huq in a WhatsApp message.
She said: “It is, by default, an industry needs to pay the salary and bonus and be a partner in the joy and festive mood of the workers who, at the end of our day, determine the sustainability of the industry.”
“Meantime, we hope next year onward, payment of salary and bonus will not be a media event and that it will not even be considered to be in your news radar,” intimated Rubana.
Sirajul Islam Rony, a union leader and a former member of the minimum wage board for the garment workers, also said there is no chaos of non-payment of wage and bonus to the garment workers. “Some factories faced difficulties, but finally they are paying the workers, he added.
(BSS)
