Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex trade body of Bangladesh advised its members to disburse wages ensuring workers safety from the impact of coronavirus.
The world is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the massive outbreak of COVID-19. This global crisis has huge implication in the Bangladesh RMG industry which is an export-oriented sector. As most of the fashion brands have closed their outlets, they are also cancelling and postponing their orders.
All these have created a massive problem for the factories as they need to arrange payments for the workers and also pay for the raw material that has been purchased. It is to be noted that the soft loan facilities declared by government will hopefully help factories with their wages next month, but in the meantime the factories have been requested to pay the salaries of March on their own. Considering the Coronavirus outbreak situation in the country BGMEA has advised and requested its members to keep the factories closed till 14 April and pay the salary upon opening within 16th April.
With so many obstacles and crisis the factories are making strides to keep the hope up and do needful to provide the salary of March 2020 within the earliest possible time. BGMEA have provided clear instructions to its member factories to disburse the wage of March within 16 April 2020 the latest. But the most appreciable thing is, many of our respected member factories have started to distribute the salary already, much earlier than requested timeline of 16 April. What’s even more encouraging is that the factories are maintaining highest standards of social distancing, safety and hygiene during the salary distribution.
Already around 278 BGMEA member factories have disbursed the wages to its workers within Dhaka Zone till 09th April 2020 and it is hoped that all the factories will be able to clear wages of the workers within the timeline advised by BGMEA.
