RMG Factories Providing Workers with Daily Necessities at Fair Price

Bangladesh RMG factory employs around 400 million people. Rising commodities prices are hampering workers' well-being. Factory owners have stepped up to open up fair price shops to provide workers with daily necessities at 10% to 20% cheaper than the market. Furthermore, workers can buy products without paying anything, product cost is deducted from their salary.

One such organization is the Urmi group with around 14000 workers in four factories. Their fair shop includes soybean oil, sugar, salt, and pulses. They set this up well before Ramadan.

Shamarukh Fakhruddin, director of Urmi Group, said, "We are supplying products to workers at prices 10% to 20% less than the market prices. Workers can buy products from here with a certain amount of their wages, which will be deducted from their salary at the end of the month."

Another such company is Team group. They distribute free food items to workers before EID and now they are planning to provide bags of essential items during Ramadan. They also operate a fair price shop with prices 7%-20% below market price.

Snowtex group is planning to open a fair price shop within the next couple of months. Moreover, 30 apparel-manufacturing companies including DBL Group, Fakir Fashion, Mohammadi Group, Ananta Group, Epyllion Group, Cute Dress, Square Group, Meghna Group, Akij Group, SQ Celsius, and Northern Apparel have been providing daily necessities to their workers at fair prices. They have continued this activity even in the face of rising commodity prices.

DBL group provides 40 types of products in their fair price shop and they are even planning to include electronic items. 

Aside from factories brands are also stepping up to help workers. Belgian fashion brand Stanley Stella has reached out to Interstoff garment workers distributing a bag of essentials to each of 5,000 workers. The food basket package includes 10 kg of rice, 1 kg of lentil, 1 kg of chickpeas, and 1 litre of soyabean oil. The brand had previously implemented similar initiatives thrice before, as part of its corporate social responsibilities (CSR).

Industry experts pointed out that setting up such shops is not costly, as factory owners are getting products at a lower price. The only cost is manpower and storing costs. Sometimes owners also receive discounts from food producers. Experts also pointed out that implementing such initiatives concertedly by factories in a specific region would yield a better outcome than implementing it by individual companies.