A meeting of the crisis management core committee in the garment sector yesterday ended without any decision on fixing the deadline to pay monthly salary and festival bonuses to apparel workers before Eid-ul-Adha. “We held the meeting mainly to urge the factory owners so that they pay the workers timely before the Eid festival,” Begum Monnujan Sufian, state minister for labour and employment, said at the meeting with the stakeholders at the secretariat in the capital. She said the ministry would hold more meetings soon with factory owners, government high-ups, the industrial police and the leaders of trade bodies in the garment sector to set the deadline for paying the workers before the Eid festival. The government formed the committee in 2013 to monitor the labour situation in all industrial sectors and address labourers’ grievances. The state minister urged factory owners to allow Eid vacation in phases so that workers can leave their workplaces smoothly by avoiding massive traffic jam before the Eid. The production in the garment sector should not be hampered owing to the vacation, she said. In the yesterday’s meeting, Sufian also said the government is monitoring the payment situation so that the workers need not to go to their village homes without receiving the festival allowance and monthly salary. A participant in the meeting said 36 garment factories did not pay the salary for the month of May yet. So, some factories may face difficulties to pay to their workers ahead of Eid festival. The ministry holds such meeting with the stakeholders to avoid any untoward incidents ahead of Eid as many garment factories cannot pay the workers on time, prompting workers to take to the streets to realise unpaid wages and festival bonuses.
