DIFE official says they have no info
A good number of garment factories are yet to implement the new wage structure for workers after more than three months of its announcement.
Labour leaders said less than 50 per cent of the factories implemented the new wage announced by a government-formed wage board on December 5 last year.Factory owners, however, said that more than 85 per cent of garment units had so far implemented the new wage structure.
Labour leaders said in some cases workers had been downgraded and they (workers) were deprived of the benefits of the new wage.
The government officials concerned, however, said that they had no documentation and observation on the implementation of the new wage in the garment sector in the month of February.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association conducted a survey on 1,500 factories in Dhaka and found that 15 per cent of the factories failed to implement the new wage structure.
‘Eighty-five per cent of garment factories in Dhaka and more than 80 per cent in Chittagong have implemented the new wage structure,’ BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age on Saturday.
He said that a few number of medium and small-scale factories had failed to implement the new wage due to the interruption in production and order loss for political turmoil.
‘No labour unrest has taken place in any garment factory over the wage issue as the factory owners, who failed to implement the new wage, have convinced their workers through negotiations,’ Azim said.
United Garment Workers Federation president Nazma Akter told New Age,
‘There is doubt that whether the new wage structure has been implemented in 60 per cent of garment factories as most of the factories located at Mirpur, Badda, Mohakhali, Rampura and Malibagh in the city are not giving new wages to their workers.’
She said that large-scaled factories had implemented the new wage but some of them downgraded workers.
Sirajul Islam Roni, president of the National Garment Workers Employee League, said that 80 per cent of factories at Savar and Ashulia of Dhaka and in Gazipur had implemented the new wage but the percentage was lower in the capital city.
He said that in many factories workers were forced to remain working with their previous wages as factory owners totally stopped fresh recruitment.
Moshiur Rahman, additional director general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment, said that they had no information on the implementation of the new wage in the garment factories in the month of February.
‘In January we observed that 82 per cent of factories gave the wages for the month of December according to the new wage structure but we, however, have no documentation in this connection,’ he said.
-With New Age input
