The Bangladesh garment industry may be planning to resume operations soon but all are not in favour of it.
Amidst an extended lockdown, which has brought the garment sector to a grinding halt and thereby hit businesses and workers’ livelihoods, industry leaders were planning to set the ball rolling by early next month.
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However, their plans have hit a roadblock after workers’ rights groups in the country have strongly opposed the move.
“Nothing is happening anywhere right now. Airlines are shut while ships are not sailing and no shipment or order is taking place. It is beyond my comprehension why they (factory owners) are planning this now,” stated co-ordinator of Garments Sramik Odhikar Andolan (an alliance of the 11 workers’ organisations) Mahbubur Rahman Ismail expressing his deep resentment to the resumption move.
Supporting Mahbubur, another labour leader and President of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation Babul Akhter maintained that if the industry still decided to go ahead and resumes operations, owners would have to take the responsibility in case of any eventuality.
“The owners are making profits for ages, but they are refusing to take responsibility of the workers now; it is their duty to pay the workers but they have been knocking at the Government’s door for help since the beginning,” Babul further added on the issue of many workers allegedly still not being paid their March’s wages.