Even as Bangladesh Government is planning to impose a strict and large-scale 7-day lockdown from 14 April that would render all business establishments, offices and factories shut for a period of 1 week, labour leaders have called for paying workers their wage during the lockdown period.
According to media reports, the central steering committee of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity has issued a statement in this regard recently, signed by its President Taslima Akhter and General Secretary Julhas Nain Babu, which demanded to ensure 100 per cent wages of garment workers during the lockdown.
Underlining that during the last lockdown, it was seen that Government officials got their salaries and other benefits from the Government even without attending offices, the statement, reportedly, underscored that the opposite scenario was found in the context of garment workers.
Terming the garment workers as a resource of the country, the labour leaders have asked the Government and factory owners to take complete responsibility of the workers during the lockdown.
Meanwhile, it may be mentioned here that as per some media reports, garment factory owners and union leaders are allegedly at loggerheads over the imminent strict lockdown as the factory owners, reportedly, want to keep their units up and running even if union leaders called for a closure of factories.
