& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Pay workers Eid bonus by June 14

State minister for labour asks industry owners

Staff Correspondent
Owners of industries, including garment factories, would have to pay the Eid festival bonus to workers by June 14 to avoid any untoward incident ahead of Eid, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for labour and employment, said today.
He also urged factory owners to clear the salaries for the month of May by June 7. The Eid-ul-Fitr is scheduled to be held on June 16, depending on the moon sighting.
He especially emphasised the need for garment factory owners to clear all payments owing to past experiences.
Chunnu made the remarks at a special meeting of the national crisis management committee at the secretariat office in Dhaka. Representatives from the owners, trade unions, law enforcement agencies, members of industrial police, regional members of the committee and government high-ups took part in the meeting.
Chunnu, also head of the national crisis management committee, held the meeting as there was a possibility of unrest before the Eid festival due to delay in payment of salaries and bonuses.
"Usually, every owner pays their workers timely ahead of Eid. Still, sometimes, some owners delay the payment. As a result, unrest breaks out in the sector during the Eid vacation. I suggest the owners pay the workers timely to avoid any unrest," Chunnu said.
"We do not have any support either from the government or from the fac-
tory owners' fund to |deal with] an emergency crisis [that might arise] if any owner fails to pay the workers timely."
This time around, the government and factory owners are taking steps to ensure timely payment of salaries and festival bonuses of the 44 lakh garment workers and the workers of other sectors.
Siddiqur Rahman, president of
BGMEA, who was also present at the crisis management committee meeting, said there was no back-up fund for meeting any emergency crisis.
"In case of a crisis, we from the BGMEA talk with the banks concerned for managing an emergency fund to pay the workers timely. We cannot pay the workers of any garment factory,” Rahman said.
Chunnu urged factory owners to allocate Eid vacation in phases so that a massive number of workers did not leave their workstations all at once, creating traffic congestion on roads and highways.
Sirajul Islam Rony, a union leader, said some small factories might face difficulties in making timely payment of salaries and bonuses due to finan-
cial problems.
In the past, the issue of nonpayment of workers' festival bonuses and salaries by some small factory owners had resulted in untoward situations before Eid.
For instance, in 2014 the nonpayment of due wages and bonuses prompted workers of five factories of Tuba Group to go on a hunger strike.
During that time, those workers even confined the mother-in-law of Delwar Hossain, owner of the Tuba Group, at a factory room at North Badda in Dhaka in July 2014, to realise their dues. Afterwards, the timely intervention of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) led to a resolution.