The garment factory owners should complete paying bonus and salaries to the workers before the beginning of the Eid-ul-Azha holidays, the Industrial Police (IP) suggested today.

They made the call in a meeting with the leaders and representatives of different trade bodies in the textile and garment sectors, held at the headquarters of the Industrial Police at Uttara in Dhaka.

The officials of the specialised police unit of Bangladesh Police also urged the trade bodies to take action against the factory owners, who are staying abroad or will stay abroad without clearing the workers' payments before the upcoming Eid vacation.

The factory owners should pay May's salary before the beginning of Eid holidays and clear the bonus before June starts, they advised.

The owners and the associations concerned should find out alternative means of clearing the payments if any factory fails to pay the workers in time for any reason, they said.

The owners should not lay off any worker before the Eid-ul-Azha, they said.

The holidays of the workers should be determined in consultation with the workers and the managements of the factories, the Industrial Police demanded.

The members of the IP have already identified some factories as risky to payment ahead of the Eid this year, but the number was not disclosed as the managements are working on it, said a senior official of the Industrial Police after the meeting, chaired by Md Mahbubur Rahman, additional inspector general of the Industrial Police.