Nearly half of RMG workers yet to receive Eid allowances

Nearly half of the readymade garment factory owners across the country have failed to keep their promises of paying festival allowances to the workers in time ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of Muslims, scheduled to be celebrated on June 5.
The government and readymade garment factory owners on May 23 decided that the Eid-ul-Fitr festival allowance would be paid to garment workers by May 30 and wages for the month of May by June 2.
The decision was taken at the meeting of the Crisis Management Core Committee under labour ministry held at Bangladesh secretariat in the capital and was presided over by the state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian.
According to the statistics of Industrial police, 54.49 per cent of factory owners across the country had paid festival allowances to their workers within the promised time that ended on Thursday.
Data showed that there were 3,536 RMG factories across the country and of them 1924 units paid festival allowances to its workers until Thursday.
Highest 750 factories out of 791 in Ashulia zone paid festival allowances in time while 402 units out of 1345 in Gazipur zone cleared the allowances. 
Data also showed that 396 factories out of 642 in Narayanganj and 330 units out of 697 in Chattogram paid festival allowances to its workers within the promised time. 
‘The process of payment of festival allowances to the workers are in progress in the readymade garment factories across the country and we have to wait until Saturday for the actual number of factories in which workers received allowances in time,’ Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice president SM Mannan Kochi told New Age on Thursday.
Shibnath Roy, inspector general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, said that a good numbers of factories paid festival allowances to their workers until Thursday evening and many of them also cleared wages for the month of May.
‘We are yet to receive any comprehensive statistics on festival allowances from our regional offices but majority of the factories paid their workers,’ he said.
Sirajul Islam Roni, president of Bangladesh National Garments Worker-Employee League, said that the large-scale factories paid festival allowances to their workers until Thursday and most of the medium- and small-scale factories would make payment on Sunday and Monday.
He, however, claimed that highest 40 per cent of RMG factories had paid festival allowances until Thursday.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net