Manufacturers of readymade garments (RMG) said operations were normal on Thursday at almost 100% of factories at the major RMG industrial hubs in Savar, Ashulia, DMP, and Gazipur.
They said that the number of factories that are still closed or have been declared closed after starting production is very negligible.
They also said that there were no reports of large protests, roadblocks, or demonstrations in the mentioned areas, even no isolated incidents of protests happened.
According to the sources, four factories were closed on Thursday in the Ashulia, Savar, and Gazipur areas. Among the four factories, two were in Savar and Ashulia, and two were closed in the Gazipur area.
In Savar and Ashulia, a factory named Anjuman Designs Ltd was closed under Section 13(1) of the Bangladesh Labour Act, which follows a “no work, no pay” rule.
Moreover, another factory of this area, Generation Next Fashion Ltd, were on general holiday for the last several weeks due to a financial crisis including delay in payment of the wages for August and September.
In Gazipur, two factories, SM Knitwear Ltd and Orion Knit Composite Ltd were closed where the later one is closed due to lay off.
There was no incident of factory closure reported at the DMP area on Thursday. Moreover, the factories of Chittagong, Narayanganj, and Narsingdi belt witnessed zero incidents of factory closure during the protests.
On Thursday, 99.50% of the 397 factories in Savar and Ashulia remained operational. In Gazipur, 99.77% of the 871 factories were functioning, and in the DMP area, 100% of 301 factories were operational.
Nationally, 99.81% of factories or 2,115 out of 2,119, factories operated normally.
Regarding the factory closure, an industry insider said that even during regular times, 10-20 factories may be closed due to various reasons among so many factories. Therefore, the closure of these factories nationally is not a big issue.
The source also said that the Uniform Textile of the DMP area had some issues with paying wages, which led to the protests at that factory, which spread to the nearby units.
But after pressure, they solved their problems and now, 100% factories of the DMP area are operational.