As of Wednesday afternoon, when BGMEA President Atiqul Islam made this announcement, 326 of around 1,600 Tuba Group workers had collected two month salaries from the BGMEA office.

BGMEA officials gave Tuba Group workers their salaries at the Karwanbazar office, but very few of them turned up. Most of the workers are still at their factory in Badda on a hunger strike running into its 10th day.

The workers are demanding that the entire three-month salary and Eid bonus has to be paid. Expenses for the treatment of the workers who have fallen ill during the hunger strike must also be met.

They are also clamouring for cancelling the bail granted to their employer Delwar Hossain, who was in jail until Tuesday charged with the deaths of 112 workers in the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire.

Atiqul Islam told reporters the owners had decided in a meeting that since many of the workers could not come on Wednesday, the salaries would be offered from 9am-5pm on Thursday.

On Tuesday BGMEA had warned the workers that they would get nothing if they did not show up in time to collect the salaries.

Atiqul said 326 workers had collected salaries till 5:45pm. By BGMEA’s record, 1,458 Tuba Group workers were still unpaid.

Some workers alleged that they were forced to go to BGMEA to collect money.

On the other hand the BGMEA president alleged that some workers’ associations had stopped the workers from coming to collect their pay. “We heard that they locked the workers up in the factory. That’s why so many of them were absent,” he said.

He alleged that the protests were efforts by “some sectors” to “divert” the incident into a different issue.

“The workers are protesting for money, and we’re sitting here with money. Millions of lives depend on the garment industry. We should not let anyone play with its fate,” he said.

He urged politicians to keep the garment sector ‘above’ politics.