Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre on Friday demanded that the amount of Eid festival allowance for the apparel workers must be set according to the basic salary for each of them by the current week, which would be effective across the country. GWTUC leaders in a rally in front of the National Press Club also asked the government to take actions against the owners who keep their units shut before Eid, showing lame excuses, and terminate workers illegally. GWTUC leaders said neither the law nor the rules fixed the percentage of Eid bonus for the RMG workers.They said in some factories the workers are given bonus equal to basic salary of a month while some others pay even one-fourth of their basic or less than that. It is decided at the discretion of the factory owner, they alleged. GWTUC president Montu Ghosh urged the owners to pay the workers’ salary for the month of August and Eid bonus before Eid vacation.He said according to rules a worker would get his salary within seven working days of the next month. Following the rules, the workers are also entitled to get their salary before Eid vacation, Montu said. Meanwhile, the government on Thursday asked the export-oriented apparel factory owners to pay wages and festival allowance to their workers before September 10 to avoid any ‘untoward situation’ in the industrial belt, during Eid-ul-Azha. GWTUC Savar-Ashulia industrial belt general secretary KM Mintu, Narayamganj belt president MA Shahin, Gazipur belt president Ziaul Kabir Khokon, central leader Mahbub Alam, among others, addressed the rally. The speakers blamed that the owners had a tendency not to pay the workers their dues before Eid. Asking Tk 10,000 as basic salary and Tk 16,000 as the minimum wage, the labour leaders urged the government to implement this demand immediately, considering price hike of essential goods. They also threatened the government to forge tougher movement if their demands were not met.
