After the Eid break, many employed in the apparel sector are going back to work, however, all factories aren’t yet completely operating. On Tuesday, a few factories in the Ashulia, Savar, and Gazipur regions opened, but most are still shuttered. BGMEA has said that the garment factories will start working in full swing in the next two days, from 21st April.
According to the BGMEA, salary and bonuses have been paid before Eid in 100 per cent of factories belonging to the BGMEA. Workers are gradually making their way back to Dhaka and starting jobs now that the Eid vacation is over.
However, the workers of some garment factories did not get their salaries for March before Eid. Especially the owners of small and medium factories could not pay the salary for March.
Owners of factories allege that their employees have been alerted about the company’s financial problems by those factories that haven’t paid their full salary for March. After the holiday, the factories will give the workers their full salary.
According to the latest statistics (9th April till 12 noon) of the Industrial Police, out of 1,561 BGMEA factories under their supervision, 272 or 17.42 per cent of factories were in arrears. And in 4.16 per cent factories, Eid bonus was due. On the other hand, out of 626 factories of BKMEA, a bonus of 1.79 per cent of factories was due, but the salary was due 13.42 per cent for 84 factories.
Fazle Shamim Ehsan, Vice President of BKMEA said, “Due to the financial crisis, few members of our organization could not pay the full salary for March. Some of them paid 50-60 percent of the salary. No factory has not paid even a part of the salary.”
