Ex- BGMEA vice-president Sirajul Haque passes away
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DHAKA, Dec 18, 2020 (BSS) – Former vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Md Sirajul Haque passed away while undergoing treatment at a city hospital on Thursday night at the age of 78.
Sirajul Haque, also elder brother of the Industries and Trade Affairs Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League (AL) Md Siddiqur Rahman, breathed his last at around 11:05 pm.
He is survived by his wife, three sons, two daughters, relatives and a host of well-wishers and admirers.
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Stimulus eludes 42pc apparel workers
TIB study reveals; BGMEA refutes the findings Star Business Report Star Business Report
More than 42 per cent garment workers did not benefit from the stimulus package despite being one of the poorest segments of the population and hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey.
This means about 14 lakh apparel workers out of a total of 33 lakh did not receive the support, said the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday. The stimulus package was given from the public money, but the interests of the workers were not considered as a priority, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the TIB, said in a virtual press conference yesterday.
“The holiday season is always tough for garment workers, as they bear the brunt of tight delivery deadlines, but there has never been a holiday season for garment workers as tough as 2020,” says Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium. “In the garment industry, pain flows downhill; when brands intensify financial pressure on suppliers, workers pay the price in lower wages and worse conditions of work. We are seeing this play out now, across the supply chain.”
Smaller orders on their own don’t pose a problem to suppliers, but individual order sizes don’t tell the whole story, says Mark Anner, the Center for Global Workers’ Rights director who conducts supplier surveys regularly and studies how pricing and other global supply chain dynamics impact labour conditions and workers’ rights. Brands are actually splitting up large-volume orders into multiple segments to protect themselves from potentially having to cancel massive orders. “They’re be
Last fiscal year, apparel shipment stood at $27.95 billion, which was $12.49 billion in FY10.
The apparel shipment has been facing a crisis from the onset of the unprecedented pandemic. Recently, it has started recovering from the first phase of the pandemic-induced shock. But the second wave, which started from September, may nip the early recovery in the bud.
Most of the major export destinations such as Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy have either announced lockdowns or are considering to announce strict measures to restrict the movement of people following a surge of infections in recent weeks.
The Netherlands has entered a five-week lockdown, with non-essential shops, theatres and gyms all closing. Germany enforced a hard lockdown from yesterday after the number of infections hit record levels.
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