State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haq Chunnu on Sunday urged the owners of the garments industries to pay the salaries and festival allowances of the RMG workers before the forthcoming Eid-ul-Azha to avert any kind of untoward situation in this sector. The Junior Minister made the call at a press conference held to share experiences gathered by a 24-member government delegation that took part in a month-long training programme in Germany on labour safety and insurance issues. Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar and senior officials concerned attended the press conference held at the Labour Ministry conference room. Chunnu said they have already requested the apparel industries owners to pay worker’s salaries and bonuses before Eid. “We hope that it would not be a problem for the workers to get salaries and festival allowances during the Eid,” he said. The State Minister also informed the draft of the Labour Rules to implement the Labour Act has already been finalized. The Ministry is now working to publish the gazette to implement the rules. It will be published in next week. Chunnu said the government has taken initiatives to introduce safety insurance for labourers to protect their rights. The Labour Ministry will launch a pilot project in November with a view to bring working people of all strata under the safety net and a high-level committee has already been formed in this connection. The Junior Minister said Germany appreciated the steps taken for development of garment industry in Bangladesh. A high-level delegation from Germany is likely to visit Bangladesh in November. He said Germany is the second biggest importer of Bangladeshi garments after the United States. Therefore, Germany is eager to extend cooperation to ensure safety and rights of garment workers. Mikhail Shipper said a total of Tk106 crore has been deposited in the fund of the Sramik Kalyan Foundation. Workers in newspaper industry would also get benefits of the fund.
