Beximco Community has laid off 30,000 employees from its 16 apparel factories in Gazipur Industrial Park, citing a shortage of orders and banking strengthen following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s authorities in August.
The layoffs symbolize 75% of the firm’s crew at the industrial park, leaving 10,000 employees in Beximco Restricted’s Textile and PPE divisions.
“Thirty thousand employees were laid off this day. As per guidelines, they’ll receive half of of their overall wage and allowances for Forty five days. The wages for all 40,000 employees at the industrial park for November had been paid,” Osman Kaiser Chowdhury, a director of Beximco Community and managing director of Beximco Restricted, told TBS this day (17 December).
Osman added that Beximco is attempting to continue paying the textile employees through native outsourcing, while Beximco PPE, which exports roughly $1 million price of products every month, is attempting to relieve production going at a factory launch air the industrial park.
Over the last four months, the community spent Tk300 crore, largely on employee wages, at the side of Tk100 crore financed through bank loans. The community requires Tk60 crore per month to pay wages, with an further Tk15 crore wished to address unpaid crew for four months.
“We’re generating Tk5-6 crore in monthly earnings from subcontracting with completely different factories, which is worthy from ample. Beforehand, these factories earned $25-30 million per month [Tk250-300 crore],” Osman told TBS on Monday.
The lack of new orders since August has worsened Beximco’s financial troubles. Main world investors grasp expressed interest in resuming alternate, but Beximco’s incapacity to salvage Letters of Credit rating (LCs) from banks has hampered these efforts.
“Some banks may perhaps well perhaps launch LCs, but only with a 100% margin and certain signals from the authorities. We fabricate no longer grasp the wanted cash reserves to fulfill such phrases,” Osman stated, warning that permanent factory closures may perhaps well perhaps word the layoffs.
Beximco’s financial woes are tied to its mounting debt. A fresh file from Bangladesh Financial institution published that the community’s loans exceeded Tk50,000 crore as of 30 November 2024, with over 50% – Tk25,524 crore – categorized as defaulted.
The community owes 16 banks and seven financial institutions, with 78 of its 188 corporations interested by borrowing.
The disaster has broader political implications. Salman F Rahman, Beximco’s vice-chairman and ancient adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina on personal alternate, has faced criticism for allegedly the consume of his affect to salvage beneficial phrases for Beximco, at the side of intensive loans.
Salman become arrested in August and is currently in detention center.
