Workers file objections
The government on Thursday announced that the new minimum wage of Tk 5,300 fixed for an apparel worker would come into effect December 1 this year amid workers’ objection to the revised scale.
‘The revised minimum wage for a readymade garment worker would be Tk5,300 with effect from December 1 with five per cent increment of the basic every year,’ labour minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju made the announcement at a meeting with RMG labour leaders at the secretariat.
But representatives of most of the labour organisations in the export-oriented apparel sector present in the meeting, raised objection to the new wage structure, saying the basic wage had been fixed at Tk3,000 by the government although the minimum wages board recommended Tk3,200.
‘The government has reduced the minimum basic wage for a worker by Tk200 from Tk3200 that was recommended by the wages board. We have filed our objection to the wages board because the reduced amount would affect the overtime bill,’ Sangjukta Garment Sramik Federation secretary Mohiuddin Mandal told the meeting.
Rajiuddin requested agitating workers to join work today, saying the factory owners had accepted the wage hike by 76 per cent from the existing minimum wage of Tk3,000, which was set in 2010. The current minimum wage for a Bangladeshi garment worker is the lowest in the world.
‘No one would be allowed to incite anarchy in the apparel industry. Stern action would be taken against both workers and factory owners if found responsible for any disorder,’ the minister warned against the ongoing agitation of RMG workers for Tk 8,000 as minimum wage.
The labour unrest on Tuesday turned violent in the industrial belts of Ashulia, Gazipur and Savar forcing the owners to shut
several hundred garment factories.
Labour secretary Mikail Shipar said that the gazette on the new wages would be issued by November 25.
As per the revised wage structure, the minimum basic wage for an RMG worker would be Tk 3,000, house rent Tk 1,200, medical allowance Tk 250, transport allowance Tk200 and food subsidy Tk 650, the secretary said.
He said that Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association leaders had accepted Tk5,300 as the minimum wage for a worker after the prime minister’s intervention.
The minister warned the workers’ leaders of conspiracies at home and abroad against the garment industry that employs around four million workers.
He said that the workers’ demand would be taken into consideration later.
Garment Sramik Sanghati will hold a rally in front of the National Press Club this morning in protest at the revised wage structure.
Different organizations working to protect garment workers’ rights demanded a further revision of the minimum wage following the formal announcement of the new wage structure for workers in the RMG sector that earns over $21 billion annually.
Garment Sramik Sangram Parishad, a combine of the eight garment labour rights bodies and Garment Sramik Oikya Forum, handed over a memorandum to the minimum wages board for a revision of the minimum wage.
Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, president of Bangladesh Textile Garments Sramik Federation, Rafiqul Islam Pathik, president of Samannita Garment Sramik Federation, Taslima Akhter, president of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sanghati, Shabnam Hafiz, president of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Mukti Andolan and Mir Mofazzal Hossain, president of Biplabi Garments Sramik Sanghati, jointly and Mushrefa Mishu, president of Garment Sramik Oikya Forum separately filed their objections with the minimum wage board.
They demanded that the minimum wage be fixed at Tk8,000 per month for a worker.
Samjtantrik Sramik Front president Zahedul Haque Milu and general secretary Razequzzaman Ratan in a press statement also demanded that the minimum wage be fixed at Tk8,000.
The minimum wages board for the garment workers led by retired district judge AK Roy on November 4 recommended Tk 5,300 as minimum monthly wage for entry-level workers.
-With New Age input
