BKMEA issues directives to factory owners to avoid unrest

Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) on Tuesday issued a set of directives to apparel factory owners to avoid the ongoing workers’ unrest.

The directives given through a letter include reduction of workers’ dissatisfaction, stopping worker hiring, maintaining cautiousness in providing factory information, taking steps to solve the grievances of the workers seriously, workers’ database creation and secured storage of CCTV footage.

It also directed the factory owners to close the factory immediately under Section 13(1) of the Labor Act, if the workers go on strike.

In the letter, the BKMEA President AKM Selim Usman said that the knit industry is currently going through a critical phase and the economic crisis is becoming more explicit due to political instability as well as the wars around the world.

Its impact is affecting the country’s economy adversely and we have already noticed its flow in the knit industry, he added.

Even amid the turmoil in the economic situation, the minimum wages for the apparel workers have been announced, which we are committed to implementing. But some vested interest groups are hatching conspiracies to destroy the industry, the BKMEA president added.

“We have to remember that for the sake of the country, the country’s economy and the workers, we have to sustain the industry,” he said. He also sought support from the factory owners to implement the directions for the sake of protecting the industry.

The owners must keep a watchful eye so that nobody can create any chaos in the factories, they should stop workers recruitment unless it is urgently required and they will have to display a ‘no recruitment’ notice at the factory gate.

“In the case of urgent new recruitment, the factory owners must verify all the information of the workers and ensure workers’ database and other personal information if necessary,” the letter said.

The letter also said that the factory owners cannot provide factory information to any third person or organization without the written approval of BKMEA and the factory worker database must be updated.

Ensuring security of the factory, the administrative supervision should be increased and CCTV footage should be kept in safe storage and resolving workers’ grievances immediately, the letter added.