Half of RMG workers not paid festival allowance

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A half of the garment factory owners did not pay the festival allowance to workers till Thursday evening, a deadline set by the government to pay the workers their wages and the allowance, despite monitoring by law enforcement agencies and the owners’ association.
Workers at many factories in the capital city and on its outskirts went out on demonstrations and did not join work, demanding the payment of wages, dues in arrears and the festival allowance on Thursday.
The workers blocked roads at places in Gazipur to push for the payment of their dues and the festival allowance. The blockades caused severe traffic congestion.
The supervision by the law enforcement agencies and the association leaders could only ensure the payment of wages. But the festival allowance remained unpaid in about a half of the factories.
The monitoring, however, could only ensure the payment of monthly wages to the workers, who earn about 77 per cent of the total export earnings.
But labour leaders estimated that a half of the factories had not paid the festival allowance this year.
The Garment Workers’ Unity Forum president, Mushrefa Mishu, said, ‘Workers of at least two-thirds of the garment factories have not received the festival allowance.’
The workers at the Abarani Garments Limited at Shewrapara, Sky Heart Apparels at Mirpur, Fashion Toy at Ashulia, Union Apparels in Narayanganj, Joya Apparels at Kanchpur, Sattar Garments at Uttara, and Fame Shirts Limited at Uttara went out on demonstrations to push for the payment.
The leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Assocaition and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, high local administration officials, leaders of the workers and the owners later held meetings and the workers were given their wages, but not the festival allowance.
In Gazipur, the workers of the UTA Fashions at Salna went out on demonstrations in the morning to push for the payment of the festival allowance.
The workers at about 10:00am took to the streets and blocked the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway. Several hundred vehicles remained stranded on both ends of the road.
The police and the Rapid Action Battalion controlled the situation at about 11:30am.
The workers of the Joint Fashions and the Six H Garments at Tongi took to the streets and blocked the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway at about 1:00pm. They demanded their wages in arrears and the festival allowance.
The law enforcement agencies tackled the situation at about 2:30pm after meetings with the garment authorities. The congestion continued into the evening.
The chief inspector of factories, ASM Serajuddin, however, expressed his satisfaction about the payments.
‘We are pleased to see that the situation has improved a lot regarding the payment of workers, especially wages, before Eid,’ he told New Age on Thursday.
As for non-payment of the festival allowance in a significant number of factories as reported by labour leaders, he said, ‘Let us hope that the owners pay all the dues to the workers in future.’
Nazma Aktar, the president of a workers’ group named Awaz Foundation, said most owners had paid wages, but not the festival allowance, before Eid.
Shirin Akter, the president of Karmajibi Nari, a watchdog of workers’ rights, said their teams had found the payment of wages before Eid to be satisfactory.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association president, Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, said the payment of wages before Eid this year was satisfactory.
The association assigned the directors on its board to monitor Eid payment and settle related disputes.
The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association president, AKM Fazlul Hoque, said, ‘There is not a single BKMEA member which has not paid the workers the wages of September.’ But he said at least one-fourth of the factories could not pay the festival allowance.
Sources said government agencies were active in monitoring the payment of dues and allowances to workers before Eid. ‘Intelligence agencies kept watch against payment related disputes and law enforcers brokered negotiations with the factory managements for wages before Eid,’ a high Rapid Action Battalion official told New Age.
The labour adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, at a meeting on Tuesday warned the factory owners of legal action in case of non-payment of wages and the festival allowance.
He also asked the workers not to go on the rampage in such cases and advised them to wait for negotiations between law men and factory owners.
The meeting was told that intelligence agencies had listed about 100 factories in Dhaka, 83 in Gazipur, and 31 in Narayanganj where unrest might take place over the non-payment of dues and the festival allowance before Eid.

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