1665 factories paid wages till 16 April

In a statement, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) informed that already 1665 factories have paid wages till 16 April to their workers and the factories maintained fantastic hygiene protocol during salary disbursements. Meaning a total of 73% factories paid wages.

A total of 21,59,100 workers received salary among 24,72,417 total workers of BGMEA factories.

The recent Coronavirus situation has created a crisis nobody has experienced before. Readymade garment manufacturing units are also facing an unprecedented challenge of existence. At the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, BGMEA requested all members to clear March’s salary on time.

Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA said, “till today 87% of workers have received March salary and BGMEA is continuously working towards that. But there is a reality out there worldwide which we need to be aware of.”

Rubana Huq explains the current challenges Bangladeshi apparel factories are facing:

1. Uncertainty from brands about all cancellations/postponement of present orders, WIP and future placement which has already exceeded USD 3.15 billion.
2. Factories have not shipped any goods for the last three weeks now and without shipping documents, there is a shortage of funds through the bank channel.
3. Most industrial areas like Gazipur, Savar, Narayanganj are under lockdown making movement within these areas nearly impossible, as mostly the factories pay by cash.
4. Even the banks are functioning in an extremely limited manner due to the lockdown. BGMEA has reached out to all banks requesting to co-operate in a more relaxed condition so that factories can take money to pay worker salaries.

BGMEA is continuously working round the clock to ensure maximum worker payments of March is cleared, as the lockdown has been now extended till 25 April, all of the workers will be paid as quickly as possible.

BGMEA strongly wants to assure all that workers will be paid for March. So BGMEA requests all its workers to have faith and rest assured that the March salary will be paid.