RMG workers returning to work after Eid holiday

The workers working in the garment industry are returning to work after the Eid holiday. However, not all factories are fully operational yet. A few factories in Gazipur, Savar, Ashulia areas were opened on Tuesday, but most of them are still closed. BGMEA has said that the garment factory will start working in full swing in the next two days on Saturday, April 21.

Figure: The workers working in the garment industry are returning to work after the Eid holiday.

According to BGMEA, salary and bonus have been paid before Eid in 100% of factories belonging to BGMEA. The workers happily went to the village to celebrate Eid with salary and bonus. At the end of Eid holiday, now they are slowly returning to Dhaka and joining work.

However, the workers of some garment factories did not get their salary for the month of March before Eid. Especially the owners of small and medium factories could not pay the salary for the month of March.

Leaders of factory owners say factories that haven't paid full March salaries have informed workers about the company's financial irregularities. The factories will pay the due salary to the workers after the holiday.

According to the latest statistics (April 9 till 12 noon) of the Industrial Police, out of 1,561 BGMEA factories under their supervision, 272 or 17.42 percent factories were in arrears. And 4.16 percent factory Eid bonus was due. On the other hand, out of 626 factories of BKMEA, bonus of 1.79 percent factories was due, but the salary was due of 13.42 percent or 84 factories.

Fazle Shamim Ehsan, Vice President of BKMEA said, “Due to the financial crisis, few members of our organisation could not pay the full salary for March. Some of them paid 50-60 percent of the salary. There is no factory that has not paid even a part of the salary.”