The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Thursday claimed that all its member factories cleared workers’ wages for the month of May and festival allowances as per the rules ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals for the Muslims, will be celebrated in the country on June 16 or 17 subject to the appearance of the moon.‘We have monitored 1,220 factories across the country and found 35 of them problematic. Workers’ wages and allowances in the factories have been cleared with the intervention of the BGMEA,’ Md Siddiqur Rahman, president of the BGMEA, said at a press briefing at the headquarters of the trade body in the city.A quarter was active to create anarchy in the RMG sector ahead of Eid raising some unlawful demands including advanced wages for the month of June, he said.The BGMEA president claimed that compliant factories having with registered trade unions faced trouble even after the payment of workers’ wages and allowances in due time.Though he blamed trade union activities for unrest in some factories, he could not place any acceptable proof in this regard.The BGMEA president claimed that exporters had been facing harassment on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway for a couple of days and the police were creating unnecessary obstacles to plying export products-laden trucks and covered van on the highway.He also alleged that they were forced to pay extra money to the inland container terminal.Siddiq urged the government to stop harassment the exporters are facing in carrying export products to the Chittagong port.Sirajul Islam Roni, president of the Bangladesh Garment Workers and Employees League, said that all the BGMEA member factories paid wages and allowances to their workers but workers of a few number of BKMEA member factories were yet to get the salary and festival allowances.
