About 54.49 per cent of the country’s ready-made garment (RMG) factories, except those of Dhaka metropolitan area, paid festival allowances to their respective workers until Thursday in line with the government’s instruction, said the Industrial Police (IP) sources. A total of 3,536 RMG units, located in Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Chattogram, Mymensingh and Khulna areas, are under the purview of the IP. Of the garment factories, the rate of festival allowance payment is the lowest, 29.88 per cent, in the Gazipur industrial belt. A total of 402 units, out of the highest 1,345 located in Gazipur, have paid festival allowance, the IP statistics showed. Some 47.34 per cent or 330 garment units in Chattogram paid the allowance until Thursday, followed by 61.69 per cent or 396 units in Narayanganj, and 78 per cent or 44 units in Mymensingh. There are 697 garment factories in Chattogram, 642 in Narayanganj and 56 in Mymensingh, according to the IP data. Some 95 per cent out of 791 garment factories, located in Ashulia, have paid festival allowance, while all five units, located in Khulna, have paid it, the IP officials added. On May 23, the government instructed the RMG owners to pay festival allowance to their workers by May 30, and wages for the month of May by June 02. The instruction came at the 42nd meeting of the Crisis Management Core Committee, headed by State Minister for Labour Monnujan Sufian. In the meeting, Dr Rubana Huq, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), proposed paying wages for 20 days of May before the Eid-ul-Fitr. As the Eid is scheduled to be held in the first week of June, it would be better for the workers, if they receive the payment of wages for the rest 10 days of May after the holiday, she opined. The IP statistics revealed that only 236 garment factories, out of 3,536 that employ some 2.44 million workers, have paid the monthly wages. Some 54.12 per cent, out of the total 3,904 non-RMG factories, have paid festival allowance within the government’s deadline, while only 8.04 per cent of the factories have paid the monthly wages until Thursday. Some 1.90 million workers are employed in these non-RMG units, according to the IP data. Labour leaders, however, alleged that majority of the big garment factories have paid the festival allowance, while the small and medium ones are yet to paid it.
