No Eid feast for forex machine

"Our surveys revealed that only half of the factories in Dhaka paid festival bonuses during Eids in 2003," said president of the federation Aminul Haque.

Haque also pointed out that almost 90 per cent of the garment workers who play a big role in forex earning do not get formal letters of appointment from their employers. This unofficial employment procedure deprives the workers from various benefits and rights including bonus.

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According to the federation's statistics, the country has 3,600 garment factories and Dhaka alone has about 2,000 of them where as many as 10,00,000 people work.

The federation's survey observed that even the factories that give away bonus often do not follow any specific rules. Some garment houses pay a month's basic salary, some pay half the basic while a number of factories pay one-third of the basic salary as festival bonus. A few other factories pay a nominal amount to the employees as per their wish.

"It would have to be a miracle if we ever get any bonus during Eid," said an apparel worker. Eid bonus was reportedly never paid in her factory since it was established.

Nasima Begum of a sweater factory in Mirpur was one of the fortunate ones. "We got Tk 200 as Eid bonus. Although it wasn't a big help, it was still a good gesture on the part of the management," she added.

"Most of the garment workers were totally indifferent about festival bonus even a few years ago," said Mojibur Rahman Pintu, joint secretary of the federation.

"It was after we began a campaign on the issue about three years back that workers became aware of their rights," he added.

The federation officials also mentioned the lack of proper rules and regulations in the sector that has worsened the plight of the workers.

"The labour ministry formed a wage board and set up regulations for factory workers in 1992 but it was never reviewed. Moreover, most of the factories do not follow it.

'In many cases we found workers being paid Tk 500 a month while the wage board fixed the minimum wage at Tk 930 for fresh recruits," said Aminul Haque.

When contacted Quazi Moniruzzaman, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA) claimed that almost all factories that earn profit in business are paying festival bonuses to their workers.

He admitted however, that there are some factories that are unable to give away bonus as they are suffering from financial loss.

"We try to look into complaints from workers of factories that do not pay festival bonus even after making profits and try to solve it," said Moniruzzaman.

BGMEA also claimed that in most of the cases, workers get a better financial package than the salary scale of the wage board.

"We abide by the 1992 wage board of the labour ministry which is the common guideline for workers of every sector. But a specific law for the employees of ready made garment industries may be more beneficial for them," said a BGMEA official.