In a letter to its members, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has said as per the rules under labour act RMG exporters would have to pay 0.3 per cent against total export to the workers’ welfare fund established by the government and financial assistance for the deceased and disabled workers and premiums of group insurance would be paid from the fund. For which biometric database of workers would be the important tool.

Following the tragic Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people — mostly garment workers, the then BGMEA president, Atiqul Islam, had asked the BGMEA member factories to prepare a biometric database for their workers. Current BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman has said that such database would be helpful to build a relationship between factory owners and workers as well identification of workers during crisis.

On May 20, 2013, he instructed factory owners at Ashulia in Dhaka to complete biometric database for their workers by August 30, 2013 that year but as of November 25 this year only 250 factories have enrolled names of their workers in the system. Factory owners need to be registered with the BGMEA paying fee for the biometric database. After the registration, IT experts working for the BGMEA will go to the respective factories for biometric capture of their workers.

According to the BGMEA letter, factory owners will have to pay from Tk 60,000 to Tk 1.95 lakh based on their manpower for completing biometric database at their factories.

www.bgmea.com.bd