Bangladesh state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian recently said workers of readymade garment (RMG) factories that were closed in April due to general holidays announced by the government will get 60 per cent of their gross monthly wages for the period of closure. She announced this following a meeting of the Tripartite Consultative Council in Dhaka.
Factory owners and a group of trade union leaders attended the meeting.Bangladesh state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian recently said workers of readymade garment (RMG) factories that were closed in April due to general holidays announced by the government will get 60 per cent of their gross monthly wages for the period of closure. She announced this following a meeting of the Tripartite Consultative Council in Dhaka.#
Sufian said most of the factories were closed in April due to the pandemic but the workers who worked in a few factories in that month would get the full wages.
The junior minister assured that the wages would be dispatched through mobile financial services and there would be no layoffs at RMG factories.
Most garment factories were closed from March 26 to April 25 in line with the government-declared lockdown and the factories started gradual reopening from April 26.
Many garment sector trade union leaders stayed away from the meeting, said Salahuddin Shapon, former secretary general of IndustryALL Bangladesh Council, who alleged the decision of the meeting was predefined to deprive the workers of their rightful wage.
Shapon, also the president of Bangladesh Revolutionary Garment Workers Federation, alleged that the government announcement was not implemented in the RMG sector as factory layoffs and retrenchment of workers were taking place every day in the sector.
He sent a letter to the labour secretary last week asking authorities to sidestep section 12, 16, 20 and 26 of Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 for the time being by imposing section 324 to protect the workers from layoffs and termination amid the ongoing pandemic.
The Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre also expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision of cutting workers’ wages by 40 per cent during the general holidays. The organisation, in a press release, demanded not to cut wages and terminate workers from their jobs.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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