$100 million RMG work orders postponed for unrest: BGMEA

Over $100 million worth of garment work orders have been postponed because of the latest spell of labour unrest and vandalism in the country's highest export earning sector in the last three weeks, according to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) today.

Certainly, an entrepreneur, who invests by availing bank loans and assuming real-time liabilities to run factories, would not certainly want to destabilise its workers or the buyers, the BGMEA said.

"In fact, the industry lost three crucial weeks," the garment makers' platform said in a statement describing the latest spell of the labour unrest in the sector.

In the past one decade, the garment manufacturers have raised the minimum wages by 316 percent and invested millions of dollars to ensure world-class safety and comfort for the workers, investing in cleaner and greener manufacturing technologies, which testifies the exporters' commitment to the industry, the statement said.

For the entrepreneurs, arson and destruction are not an option in any circumstances. "The irony is some media narratives appears to be more empathetic to the workers than we are toward our workers."

A misrepresentation of facts is indeed harming them through the maligned propaganda, according to the statement.