Non-payment of salary, dues: Thousands in SoEs starve amid pandemic

Nearly 70,000 workers and employees of state-owned jute, textiles and sugar mills are virtually starving for non-payment of salaries amid the corona outbreak.

Many of them wondered why they are being deprived of the mammoth packages announced by the government to save the poor from this pandemic.

According to officials, employees of state-owned sugar mills under the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) have not received salaries for the past three months.

The state-owned sugar corporation has 15 enterprises having more than 15,000 employees but salaries are regular only in the Carew & Company.

Recently, the government has bankrolled sugarcane growers. But for workers, not a single penny was disbursed by finance ministry.

When asked, industries secretary Abdul Halim told the FE that the government has disbursed Tk 1,500 million for the BSFIC to pay arrears of sugarcane growers.

BSFIC chairman Sanat Kumar Saha said the total arrears against salaries are an estimated Tk 2,100 million and the arrears against sugarcane purchase are around Tk 1,570 million.

"We've paid Tk 630 million to sugarcane growers and before Eid, they will get the lion's share of their arrears," he told the FE.

"But right now we cannot pay the due salaries to the employees unless we can sell the stock of the sugar worth Tk 4000 million."

"Even I have not received my salary for the last two months," Mr Saha mentioned.

In a couple of mills, they have cleared salaries for February thorough selling the sugar stock and other mills are trying to do that.

But concerned employees said that selling sugar is a long process and thousands of poor workers will have to starve if immediate fund for salary is not allocated by the government.

"We are passing unbearable sufferings during this corona time as we cannot borrow anything from the groceries," said Kajol Basu, BSFIC working president of the Employees Federation.

He pointed out that the workers cannot perform iftar after fasting this Ramadan properly due to sheer financial crisis.

On the other hand, around 50,000 Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) workers have also been suffering due to irregular payment of salaries.

But their situation is a little bit better than the employees of sugar mills.

They had arrears for three months, but from April payment of dues started in BJMC through the government fund.

When asked, additional secretary of textiles and jute ministry Md Abul Kalam said the government has disbursed Tk 1,160 million to the BJMC.

"We hope that their dues will be paid before Eid," he added.

The BTMC owns 25 mills of which only seven are in operation. But none of these is being operated by them.

These mills, having over 5,000 employees, are leased out to private owners.

Salary disbursement in these mills is also irregular and most mills fail to disburse salaries for three straight months, unionists said.

But BTMC chairman told the FE that his corporation has no liability for this as these mills are run by private entrepreneurs.

For weeks, a series of programmes were organised by the workers of these mills in different parts of the country.

Experts, however, said as these mills are losing concerns, regular payment of salaries will be a far cry for them unless they would be profitable.

Due to mismanagement, corruption and wrong government policy these 'once profitable' mills are now become unviable entities.

Even the employees who retired from these mills are not getting their dues as post-retirement benefits.

For example, only in Faridpur Sugar Mills, Tk 180 million remains unpaid against the post-retirement benefits of employees, officials said.

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