Open fire on attackers
Commerce minister tells garment factory owners
Staff Correspondent
The Daily Star, Bangladesh
Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed yesterday asked the garment owners to open fire in case of attacks on their factories in future.
“Sometimes you have to be tough. You can wait for one or two incidents and then straight fire on the attackers to save your factories,” he said referring to the recent labour unrest in the readymade garment sector.
The minister was speaking as the chief guest at a meeting with the garment owners at Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) office in Dhaka.
Hafizuddin, however, urged the owners to try their best to raise the salary of the garment workers and implement the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed at a tripartite meeting in June.
“The owners should increase the workers’ salary so that they can lead a decent life. At the same time, there should not be any unrealistic demand from the workers’ side as well,” the minister observed.
Speaking at the meeting, former BGMEA president Annisul Huq said the workers are demanding a salary hike of an astronomical 525 per cent and they are demanding Tk 24,425 a month for a grade-I worker. The industry cannot afford to meet such demands, he added.
There are several hundred sick garment factories and this is one of the three major problems the apparel sector is faced with, he said adding that a large number of factories are barely surviving on marginal profit.
Annisul represents BGMEA in the six-member board formed by the government to recommend a pay scale for the workers.
Pointing to some other problems including corruption at Chittagong port, he said the garment owners are “extorted at several stages at the port”. The exporters have to pay an extra $1 lakh dollar on each ship at the Chittagong port, he noted.
BGMEA President SM Fazlul Hoque said the garment owners want to get rid of the huge hidden expenditure that they now have to incur.
“They say we exploit the workers but there is none to say that the garment owners in fact are being exploited,” he added.
In addition to paying Tk 2,500 to the state coffers, a factory owner has to pay the customs officials Tk 10,000 and this trend needs to be changed, he argued.
Fazlul said getting imports cleared on time is another big problem for the garment owners. Moreover, electricity crisis has pushed up the production cost to a much higher level, he added.
Commerce Secretary Firoz Ahmed called on the garment owners to do their best regarding wages of the workers.
