Budgetary allocation for apparel workers demanded

A workers’ organisation has demanded budgetary allocation for food rationing and housing facilities of the readymade garment workers in recognition of their contribution to Bangladesh’s economy.

Garment Workers' Trade Union Centre raised the demand from a rally in front of the National Press Club on Friday.

The group’s President Montu Ghosh said though the apparel workers worked hard and contribute immensely to the economy, they did not get good food and liveable housing.

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“The government needs to address these issues for sake of the country,” he said.

He said no budget in the past had made any allocation for apparel workers although the apparel sector fetched the country almost 80 percent of its export earnings.

The platform’s Vice-President Mahbub Alam said the garment workers were living in uncertainty since those responsible for the killings of workers in the incidents of fire and building collapse in the apparel units went unpunished.

This only encouraged the offenders, he observed.

He demanded that the mysteries behind all the killings of garment workers in their workplaces be unearthed and those responsible handed appropriate punishment.