Owners of readymade garment factories on Sunday assured the government that they would clear the workers' dues and pay wages of the current month along with festival allowance before Eid-ul-Fitr.
The assurance came at an inter-ministry meeting on law and order in the readymade garment sector with home minister Sahara Khatun in the chair at the secretariat.
'RMG factory owners have agreed to pay the wages and festival allowances to their workers before Eid,' Sahara told reporters after the meeting.
Garment sector generally witnesses workers' unrest before Eid over non-payment of wages and allowances, she added.
It is feared that non-payment of wages and festival allowance may cause labour unrest in the garment industry in and around the capital ahead of Eid.
The meeting decided to open a control room at the labour ministry to monitor the situation in the readymade garment sector throughout the month of Ramadan as Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest festivals of the Muslims, is likely to fall on August 31 or September 1.
It also directed the crisis management committee to hold a meeting every other day to avoid trouble in the RMG sector.
Labour and employment minister Khondker Mosharraf Hossain, state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian, state minister for home Shamsul Haque, representatives from Bangladesh Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and senior officials from law enforcement agencies, among others, attended the meeting.
The home minister said that the factory owners had been requested to clear the workers' dues and pay their wages before Eid so that no quarters could create trouble in the garment industry in the month of Ramadan.
BGMEA president Shafiul Islam said that garment factory owners would pay monthly wages along with festival allowance to the workers by the end of the month although a fresh recession in the world economy was likely to affect the sector.
'We have conveyed our concern to the finance minister over the fresh recession in global market. We have agreed to pay the dues and current month's salary to the workers before Eid despite the crisis,' he told reporters.
The inter-ministry meeting also asked the Bangladesh Bank to take steps to keep open the commercial banks on weekly holidays for smooth transactions before Eid.
Source : New Age
