Labour leaders demand at a discussion
Labour leaders and right activists on Thursday demanded that the government should set the minimum wage for the workers of shrimp and fish processing industry at Tk 12,600 from the existing Tk 2,645 a month. They said that in setting minimum wage it would not be wise to compare the shrimp and fish processing sector with the readymade garment sector as health risk in the shrimp and fish processing sector is much higher than that in the RMG sector.
‘Everyone has right to live a decent life and the minimum wage should be set considering the factor,’ Manusher Jonno Foundation executive director Shaheen Anam said at a discussion on re-setting of minimum wages of shrimp and fish processing industry at the Hotel 71 in the city.
Solidarity Center-Bangladesh and Social Activities for the Environment jointly organised the event.
Shaheen said that the working condition in the shrimp sector improved after a long struggle and the right activists had to face various threats during their activities in the belt of fish processing industry mainly in Khulna.
‘When we raise our voice to protect labour rights, owners make allegation that we are trying to destroy the sector which is completely wrong,’ Shaheen said.
Monira Sultana, general secretary of Shrimp Labour Welfare Association, said that the working condition in the shrimp sector improved but a good number of workers had been forced to work in inhuman working condition.
Demanding the minimum wage for the shrimp sector workers at Tk 12,600 she said that the owners agreed to set minimum wage equivalent to the RMG workers but they should realise that the nature of job in the garment factory and fish processing industry was not same.
BM Zafar, convenor of the Coordination Committee to Protect the Interest of Shrimp and Fish Sector, alleged that in every seminar owners of the fish processing industry promise to allow trade unions in their units but practically they suspend workers who form union.
He also alleged that very recently the owner of Modern Sea Food suspended a worker Azadur Rahman for alleged corruption. Azad was the elected president of the trade union in the unit and workers representative to the wage board, Zafar said.
The government recently directed the minimum wage board to review the minimum wage for workers in the shrimp and fish processing sector which was last reviewed in 2009.
Md Golam Mostafa, former president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association, said that owners agreed with the labour leaders and rights groups to increase the minimum wage but they needed guarantee of increasing productivity and removal of corruption.
‘Re-setting of minimum wage is not our concern as we are paying our workers higher than the existing minimum wage,’ he said.
Wages are only 2 per cent of total export earnings of the sector while corruption is 10 per cent of the earnings, he added.
M Khalilullah, vice-president of the BFFEA, said that if the government and labour leaders give assurance to remove corruption, we will be agreed to set minimum wage at Tk 15,000.
State minister for labour Mujibul Haque said that owners and workers would have to reach a consensus regarding the minimum wage so that the workers could live a decent life with their family members.
‘We are mentally feudalist. We are gaining profit through business and making second home abroad but are unwilling to pay workers properly,’ he said.
Member of Parliament Shirin Akther, Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad leader Wajed-ul Islam Khan, Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies assistant executive director Sultan Uddin Ahmed, Rajshahi University professor Jakir Hossain and Solidarity Center-Bangladesh programme director Alonzo Suson also spoke at the programme.
US president Barack Obama on June 27, 2013 suspended GSP trade benefits for Bangladesh due to poor working condition in the RMG and the shrimp and fish processing sectors
-With New Age input
