She mentioned that the general holiday has been extended till April 25, saying that all of their workers will be paid as quickly as possible.
"BGMEA strongly wants to assure all that workers will be paid for March. So, BGMEA requests all its workers to have faith and rest assured that March salary will be paid," she said in a statement.
Also read: 78 pc RMG workers received salary: BGMEA
The coronavirus situation has created an unprecedented crisis. Readymade garment manufacturing units are also facing challenge of existence. At the outbreak of COVID 19 crisis, BGMEA requested all members to clear March salary on time.
And till today, 78 percent of workers have received March salary, she said.
"But there’s a reality out there worldwide which we need to be aware of," Huq said.
Cancellations or postponement of orders, WIP and future placement already exceeded $3.15 billion.
Factories have not shipped any goods for last three weeks and without shipping documents, there is a shortage of fund through bank channel, Huq said.
Most industrial areas like Gazipur, Savar, Narayanganj are under lockdown making movement within these areas nearly impossible, as the factories mostly pay by cash, she said.
Even the banks are functioning in an extremely limited manner due to the situation, the BGMEA chief said.
BGMEA has reached out to all banks requesting to cooperate in a more relaxed condition so that factories can take money to pay worker salary, she said.