Most RMG units clear wages, allowances, BGMEA claims

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Saturday claimed that till Friday almost all the readymade garment factories paid festival allowances to their workers while 91 per cent of the units gave wages for the month of August.
At a press briefing on labour situation in the export-oriented RMG industry, BGMEA leaders said that as per intelligence report the trade body monitored 928 factories and found problems related to wages and allowances in 18 of the factories.
‘We have solved the problems in the factories and hopefully 100 per cent factories will pay wages to their workers by Sunday (today),’ BGMEA president Md Siddiqur Rahman said at the briefing held at the headquarters of the trade body in the city.
He thanked the bank authorities as they extended their support to the RMG sector before Eid-ul-Azha, which will be celebrated on Tuesday, to provide wages and allowances to the workers of some factories which remained closed due to safety faults.
Labour leaders, however, differed with the BGMEA claims saying that most of the factories paid wages and allowances to their workers but still there were problems in some factories.
Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garments Workers Federation, said that 95 per cent of the RMG factories had so far paid festival allowances and 90 per cent of them had paid wages to their workers.
A few factories were not willing to pay festival allowances and some of the factories provided partial wages for the month of August to their workers, he said.
Amin said there were disputes over the wages and allowances in Dove Star, Prince Garments and Hazi Fashions in the Dhaka city.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net