Nearly 20 percent of readymade garment factories have failed to pay workers wages and festival allowances ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, leaving hundreds of workers in distress.However, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said they are committed to clearing workers’ wages and Eid bonus before Saturday.At a meeting of the Crisis Management Core Committee on the RMG sector held on May 29 at the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments office in the capital, BGMEA Vice-President Mohammad Nasir said factory owners would pay festival allowances to their workers by 20th Ramadan.He further said factory owners would make a partial payment of June wages after consulting their respective workers before Eid. State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque chaired the meeting.“Around 80 percent of companies have paid festival allowances to their workers, which are very low in amount,” Bangladesh Garment Workers Employees League President Sirajul Islam Roni told the daily sun on Wednesday.He claimed that the factories’ authorities are yet to decide when festival allowances will be distributed and they are not willing to pay the equivalent amount of basic pay as festival allowances.He feared that some small factories located in the capital would fail to pay workers’ wages and festival bonus before Eid due to lack of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned.He said many of them are not members of BGMEA or Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).“Almost all compliance factories paid salary and festival bonus to their workers, which is also the equivalent amount of basic pay as festival allowances,” he added.BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman said the association is trying to ensure 100 percent of payment of salary and festival allowances.“Some factories facing financial crises are yet to pay workers’ payment”, he added. The BGMEA president expressed the hope that the rest of the factories would pay their workers festival allowances and partial salary of June by next Saturday to celebrate the biggest religious festival for the Muslims.
