A number of workers gathered outside their readymade garment factories in Dhaka on Thursday as 609 members of the industry’s lobbying group BGMEA missed the payment deadline.
Published : 17 Apr 2020, 03:56 AM
“We haven’t got our wages. We aren’t entitled to relief either. Only some selected people where we stay get the aid,” Alyea, a teenaged worker who identified herself with one name, said.
She was waiting along with around 70 others in Rampura and Malibagh as the lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak continued.
“What will we eat if we don’t get wages or relief?” she asked. She has not been paid the monthly wages of February and March.
“Now my garment factory is closed. I have come three days but they said they will inform us after Apr 26. What will we eat?” she asked.
It said 97 factories in Dhaka and 119 others in Chattogram were at the final stages of paying their workers.
“The rest of the factories will try to pay the wages between Apr 20 and 22. We will try not to drag the date to Apr 25,” BGMEA President Rubana Huq said.
Rubana claimed the workers who protested for back pay on Wednesday and Thursday were not of factories registered with the association.
[Additional reporting by Faysal Atik]