Due to the crisis created by coronavirus infection many workers, engaged with manufacturing products in factories, working in shops and also doing jobs in private companies, face losing jobs.
Thousands of garments workers have already faced such layoff and many more are in the pipeline. Even worse, due to stagnant businesses, thousands of job holders, now remaining at home, may not be able to return to their jobs.
Such a situation may apparently become a huge burden for the government in the near future. on top of this, thousands of migrant workers are also returning in the face of global economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the country’s major export earners - the garment sector, has collapsed under the influence of coronavirus. Export orders worth more than US$ 3 billion have so far been canceled. As a result, uncertainty has been created with the livelihood of about 4 million workers and an export income of about 35 billion.
Due to the cancelation of export orders, many garments workers are facing layoffs every day. At Savar and Ashulia, where the majorities of the garments factories are located, many workers are expressing resentment over job losses.
According to labor leaders, on average 7000 workers are fired from their respective factories everyday. The down trend in garments business is evident in the fact that till now 461 factories at Gazipur industrial belt could not pay salaries of last month.
At least one million RMG workers of the country are at high risk of losing their jobs as the factories are unable to utilize their full production capacity now.
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), job postings on the online job portals dropped by 87 percent in April, while job application has also declined by 81 percent. The highest number of the recruitment process has been in the textile sector, followed by the manufacturing and education sectors.
The ADB data showed, jobs dropped by 95 percent in textile and education sectors each and 92 percent in manufacturing industries.
The average family income loss between March and May hovers at around 74 percent due to the impacts of COVID-19, said a study report, released at the very beginning of this month. The study also showed that over 1.4 million migrant workers have returned or are on their way back home due to job losses.
However, on Thursday last, Citizen’s Platform for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), Bangladesh said an estimated 13 million people were at risk of losing jobs (in the private sector) due to the prevailing crisis.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of the platform said, “Temporary or part-time job holders were at greater risk of losing their jobs”.
While job holders in private organizations are passing hardship for their earnings and livelihood, different scenarios observed in the public sector. Job holders engaged in the public service are secured. During the lockdown, most of them did not attend office (Except few officials) but they get their full salaries every month.
On the other hand, the government has also announced a special incentive from Tk 5 lakh to Tk 50 lakh (based on grade) for them. Besides, in the proposed budget, they have got an allocation of Tk 5000 crore. In the budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, Tk 60000 crore has been allotted for government officials' salary and incentives.