More than 75 percent of the garment factories have paid Eid festival bonus to their workers, while 20 percent have also given the salaries for the month of June, said the industrial police yesterday. “This year the payment system is better for the workers — we do not see any possibility of untoward incident. Every factory owner is paying the workers ahead of Eid,” said Abdus Salam, director general of the industrial police department. The industrial police targeted 150 factories that they felt might fail to pay the bonuses and salaries to their workers ahead of Eid. “However, all of them have started paying,” Salam said, adding that he is hopeful all factories will clear their dues to workers by July 4, the last working day before Eid-ul-Fitr. Sirajul Islam Rony, a former member of the minimum wage board for garment workers, reiterated the same. “Workers are saying that they are receiving the bonus timely and their factory owners have assured them of full pay and bonus on July 4.” Since the issue of bonus is not mentioned in the labour law, the factory owners are taking the liberty and paying whatever amounts they like, he said. The issue of bonus got a mention in the rules for the labour law, where it is stated that the bonus for garment workers cannot be more than their basic salaries. As a result, the factory owners are picking a random percentage of the basic salary for bonus: some are paying 80 percent of the basic salary and some as little as 25 percent. “The workers are getting their bonus, but in some cases, the amount is too little,” Rony said, while urging the government to fix a specific percentage of the basic salary as the bonus amount such that some workers are not short-changed during festival time. Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garment Workers Federation, a trade union for garment workers, echoed the views of both Salam and Rony. “I also think there will not be any chaos this time like the previous years,” he added. Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said a crisis management team has been working to monitor the payment situation of workers ahead of Eid. Separate crisis management committees have been working in nine zones across the country to keep watch on the matter. “If there is any crisis anywhere, the central crisis management committee and regional committees will act together to resolve it, as the owners have been asked to complete the payment before July 4,” Rahman added. Earlier, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for labour and employment, asked the 4,000 active garment factory owners to complete the payment of bonus to workers within 20th day of the Ramadan to avoid any unrest in the sector, where more than 4.4 million are employed.
