Embattled Beximco Limited has announced another round of layoffs citing a lack of work orders, a decision that affects nearly 8,000 workers across five manufacturing units in its industrial park in Gazipur.
The layoffs at Beximco Yarn-2, Textiles, Denim, Knitting and RR Washing will become effective today, according to layoff notices issued by the Beximco authorities yesterday.
The workers will be paid salaries as per the labour law: half of their basic salaries and some other benefits during the 45-day layoff period, the Beximco authorities said.
Labour Secretary AHM Shafiquzzaman told The Daily Star that the laid-off workers will be placed in various factories after Beximco settles their dues.
“We are not receiving any work orders from local manufacturers, leaving us with no choice but to declare layoffs,” said Osman Kaiser Chowdhury, managing director of Beximco Limited.
Earlier on December 15 last year, the labour and employment ministry advised Beximco, whose vice-chairman Salman F Rahman has been in jail since August 13 last year, to proceed with the layoffs as the government could no longer provide indefinite financial assistance, he said.
“We requested that four factories under Beximco Limited remain open to meet work orders from local manufacturers. But those orders never materialised.”
Workers, already facing uncertainty over their salaries, grew increasingly anxious, prompting the company to take this drastic measure, Chowdhury added.
The latest development comes a week after the interim government announced that it would sell shares of Beximco Group’s two running and profitable companies — Beximco Pharmaceuticals and Shinepukur Ceramics — to pay the salaries of the conglomerate’s laid-off employees.
The conglomerate, which landed in hot water following the ouster of the Awami League-led government on August 5 last year, has more than Tk 40,000 crore in loans, including Tk 28,544 crore taken by its 32 textile and apparel subsidiaries.
Of those 32 factories, 16 exist only on paper. But the factories were used as collateral to take loans, said Labour and Employment Adviser M Sakhawat Hossain at a press briefing on January 28.
A large amount of the loans have been classified.
Beximco Group had previously laid off nearly 32,000 workers across 15 of its apparel units due to a persistent shortage of orders in its export-oriented garment and textile factories in Gazipur. https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/beximco-lays-another-8000-workers-3816111
