Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) says its President Rubana Huq did not announce anything about job cuts in the sector.
A press conference arranged on Saturday by labour activists under the banner of the “Garment Workers’ Rights Movement” had drawn the attention of the BGMEA authorities, according to a press statement issued by BGMEA on Saturday.
BGMEA thinks, the matter is not presented objectively. The BGMEA president did not announce the retrenchment. As an organization there is no opportunity to make such a declaration. found Due to employment decline BGMEA President have expressed deep concern and apprehension about layoffs.
In this regard BGMEA’s statement is as follows.
The garment industry has grown in the first 10 months of the current financial year (July 2019-April 2020) negative 14 percent, which is the highest negative growth in the industry in the last 5 years.
During the period from 1st May to 20th May, the growth of the industry was negative 55.7 percent. More than 3 billion worth of purchases have been made in the garment industry since March 20 was Canceled.
The impact of Covid-19 has shrunk in the international markets of the garment industry. Many big buyers have gone bankrupt because of covid-19.
In the current situation, in fact, no factory is able to use 100 percent of its capacity. There are also cases where the factory is running at 35 percent capacity. Even in big factories cannot use more than 60 percent capacity. It may be mentioned that in June this year, Somehow the production activities are going on the garment factories using an average of 55 percent capacity. The situation in July is difficult to predict right now. However, entrepreneurs fear that the garment industry will face more challenges in the coming days.
According to McKenzie, the impact of Covid-19 on the world in 2020 compared to the previous year sales revenue in the garment market is 30% which means that the export of garments from Bangladesh will fall around 10 billion dollar.
Needless to say, in the current situation, entrepreneurs are struggling to survive. Under the Covid 19 situation, 347 of BGMEA’s member factories have been shut down only in the last 2 months.
There are only 1926 factories left. if the situation continues The rest of the factories will either shut down one by one or try to survive in the hope of changing the day at low capacity (without full capacity).
This is the harsh reality of today’s world. We all see that the number of jobs and workers is also decreasing in other countries of the world. We build art for job creation. Today’s reality is cruel for our entrepreneurs as well.
According to BGMEA Two things need to be clear here.
1) Hon’ble Prime Minister has announced a simple conditional loan of 5 thousand crore taka by which workers are being paid into bank account or MES account. In this context, it should be noted that a The garment sector pays around Tk 4,000 crore per month.
2) Factory closure or capacity reduction by analyzing all data, BGMEA is deeply concerned about the employment of workers in this context. Employment is declining not only in the clothing sector but also in all sectors. BGMEA mexclusively hopeful, even if a factory is a victim of the above situation, still the owner and the worker both will be respectful of labor laws.
BGMEA sincerely expects that in the above context, in the interest of industry entrepreneurs and workers, BGMEA’s statement will be presented correctly and everyone will stand by united in this difficult time.
