Garment makers aim to clear the salaries and allowances of their workers by July 15 to avoid any untoward incident before the Eid festival. “We have instructed our members to complete the payments by that time,” said Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Azim also said the factory owners will clear salaries by July 10 and festival allowances by July 15.Last year, nearly 2,000 workers of Tuba Group did not receive their salaries before Eid-ul-Fitr as the owner of the company—Delwar Hossain—was in jail in Tazreen Fashions fire case. BGMEA and the industrial police have made a list of 45 factories in Dhaka and 29 in Chittagong, which may fail to clear the payments in time due to a cash crunch, he told The Daily Star. “Our crisis management team is also monitoring the situation so that the workers are paid properly and timely,” Azim said. Eight regional committees in Dhaka, Savar, Ashulia, Narayanganj and Gazipur have been assigned to monitor the payment situation, Azim said. As their payments were not cleared, the workers of Tuba Group could not go to their village home during Eid-ul-Fitr last year, and observed hunger strike in front of the factory gate in Dhaka. “We don’t want any such incident this year. We have also communicated with the central bank so the bank branches remain open to help clear the payments before Eid.” The number of vulnerable factories in Dhaka and Chittagong will cross 150, said Sirajul Islam Rony, a former member of the minimum wage board for garment workers. “Most of the small and subcontracting factories may not pay the workers in time,” he said, adding that the labour leaders are also monitoring the payment situation. Bangladesh’s garment sector employs around 4.4 million workers.
