About 200 apparel factories have failed to clear wages, festival allowances and other financial benefits although the government and manufacturers assured of clearing all kinds payments to the workers by Sunday.
Workers' representatives in the apparel industry sought government's immediate intervention in this connection expressing fear that the unpaid workers could go for violent protests.
They said payments were cleared in three categories as many factories cleared wages for running month, festival bonuses and overtime bills, a number of units cleared only wages and some others paid only festival allowances.
When contacted, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Industrial Police Abdus Salam said around 200 apparel units are yet to clear payments of the workers as 3069 units out of 3265 apparel factories in the country have cleared such payments by 6:00pm on the day.
"We are mounting pressure on the errant manufacturers regarding payments of the workers ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr," he added.
Talking about the issue, Director of Industrial Police (Kanchpur-Narayanganj) Mohammad Tabarak Ullah said there are 1878 RMG (readymade garment) and Non-RMG factories under the apparel industrial belt.
"Around 50 factories have so far been failed to comply with the instruction of clearing the payments until 5:00pm but pressure is on to force the owners to pay wages and other financial benefits," he said.
The police officials said the factories mostly are medium and small in sizes and make various kinds of apparel products on sub-contract.
The apparel units are located at Ashulia, Gazipur, Saver, Kanchpur, Rupganj and Chittagong apparel industrial belts.
President of Jago Bangladesh Garments Sramik Federation Bahrain Sultan Bahar called upon the errant apparel makers to clear all payments of workers immediately for the sake of workers' joyful Eid celebration.
"If the owners do not pay any heed over the matter, the situation will be much tougher to handle," he said.
President of Textile Garment Workers Federation Abul Hossain said owners should show positive attitudes during the very crucial time as the industry bitterly witnessed a number of massive violence on several occasions in the past.
"We're always talking about the stability of the country's highest foreign currency earning sector but it cannot be possible to achieve that leaving the workforce unpaid," he added.
The workers' leaders also requested the government entities concerned for paying serious attention over the issue as it could cause violence street protests and thus affect the journey of Eid holidaymakers by hampering traffic movements on highways.
Seeking anonymity, a senior official at BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) said a large number of factories have paid the payments because of the continuous pressure of the Association.
"We're hopeful that the owners who haven't cleared payments yet would clear the wages and arrears by tomorrow (Monday) morning," he added.
Garment industry is the country's highest foreign currency earning sector that alone earned more than US$24 billion out of the country's overall export earnings of US$30.17 billion in the financial year of 2013-2014.
200 RMG factories fail to clear wages, allowance in time
FE Report | Published: July 28, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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