Export-oriented readymade garment factory owners will pay festival allowance to their workers by Ramadan 20, according to one of the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.Following a meeting of Crisis Management Core Committee on the RMG sector held on Monday at the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments office in the city, the BGMEA vice-president Mohammad Nasir told New Age that the factory owners would give partial wages for the month of June after consulting with their respective workers before Eid-ul-Fitr.‘The RMG factory owners usually pay festival allowance by Ramadan 20 and this year we will again follow the tradition,’ he said.Labour leaders, however, have been demanding festival allowance by Ramadan 15 and full wages for the month of June.In the meeting presided over by the state minister for labour, Mujibul Haque, the BGMEA vice-president said that it would not be possible for the factory owners to pay full wages for June as the garment sector was passing through a tough time with a fall of export growth to 2.21 per cent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal. Despite the stunted growth in the sector, the BGMEA would take initiatives so that all of its member factories pay festival allowance to the workers, Nasir said. ‘Regarding wages for the month of June, we can assure that the factory owners would pay partial wages — for 10-15 days — after holding negotiations with their workers before Eid,’ he said. In the meeting, the BGMEA vice-president did not mention any date for giving festival allowance or partial wages. Following the meeting, the state minister told New Age that he had asked factory owners and workers to reach a consensus over festival allowance and wages so that no untoward situation occurred in the sector prior to Eid-ul-Fitr. ‘As per the law, owners will have to pay wages for the month of June by July 10 but on special consideration, the factory owners can pay partial wages before Eid as the festival will be observed on June 26 or 27,’ Mujibul said. ‘It’s completely up to factory owners and workers to decide what the partial wages will be,’ he added. In the meeting, the junior minister said that the ministry would prepare a list of trade unions who were working in the garment sector without going to the registration process after one of the Sramik League leaders alleged that unregistered trade unions were trying to create unrest in the sector. Labour secretary Mikail Shipar, DIFE inspector general Md Shamsuzzaman Bhuiyan, Sramik League president Shukkur Mahmud and Garmet Sramik Karmachari League president Lima Ferdousi, among others, attended the meeting.
