Apparel Sector Wage
CPD for Tk 6,560 this year, Tk 8,200 from next year
Civil society think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue on Tuesday proposed Tk 6,560 in monthly minimum wage for entry-level apparel workers.
The minimum wage needs to be increased to Tk 8,200, CPD officials said at a dialogue in the CIRDAP auditorium. The CPD executive director, Mustafizur Rahman, presided over the progrmame on the minimum wage in the apparel sector.
Economists, labour leaders and senior BNP leaders supported the CPD’s proposal but the representative of apparel factory owners to the dialogue opposed the proposal.
The CPD proposal said that considering the actual expenditure, the workers (under Grade 7) should get Tk 8,200 in minimum wage but as all the factories are not capable of paying the amount, the minimum wage for the first year could be 80 per cent of the actual expenditure at Tk 6,560. The remaining 20 per cent could be provided in the second year, with inflation adjustment.
The organisation’s additional research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem presenting the proposal said that workers falling in Grade 4-6 should be given encouraging wages and the period of a single grade should be mentioned in the wage board recommendations.
MM Akash, a teacher of economics in Dhaka University, said that it was quite possible to pay workers Tk 8,000 a month if owners spent just 25 per cent of their total earning.
‘Owners always say that their factories will be closed if they pay the minimum wage but factories have not been closed because of this reason,’ Akash said.
Leaders of apparel workers who attended supported the CPD proposal. They hoped that the government would accept the proposal for implementation at the earliest.
They leaders also said that in keeping with the labour law, owners should allow trade unions in apparel factories as this would help in smooth running of the factories.
Workers leader Jahanara Begum said, ‘We support the CPD’s minimum wage proposal and there is no scope to decide an amount lower than this.’
She said that owners should accept the proposal in the interest of their business as labourers have the right to a minimum living standard. She added that the owners should treat workers as their capital.
Babul Shikdar, another leader of the workers, said, ‘We want an implementation of the CPD wage proposal.’
Nazma Akhter, another leader, said that when the government had set up the previous wage board for apparel workers, it had accepted the CPD proposal.
‘I think the CPD proposal is practical and the government should implement it at the earliest,’ she said.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said, ‘The owners have always said that the factories will be closed after an increase in wages but none of the apparel factories has been closed.’
He said that it showed that the owners had always given false information and they had lost their credibility because of this.
Differing on the CPD proposal, Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association director Arshad Jamal Dipu said that the sector had been facing several challenges for a few years. ‘Every proposal regarding the apparel sector should be on a logical basis.’
He said, ‘Increase in wages in the apparel sector should be done every five years. But in view of the present circumstances, the government set up the wage board for apparel workers two years and a half after the establishment of the previous wage board. The inflation is now 19.5 per cent. We have prepared our proposal considering the inflation.’
The exporters’ association in mid-September submitted its proposal to the wage board, saying that the wage could be increased to Tk 3,600 from the existing Tk 3,000.
‘The CPD should justify the capability of the sector. None of the buyers said that they would buy products for an increased price if we increased wages of our workers,’ the BGMEA director said.
‘Because of gas and power shortage, political instability and a double-digit borrowing cost, the sector is losing competitiveness on the international market which has blurred the prospect of the sector,’ he said.
Israfil Alam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry, said that the sector was earning the country 75 per cent of its total export revenue. ‘We need to be careful in making decisions on issues regarding the sector.’
‘An entry-level employee gets about Tk 6,500, including the overtime bill with a basic of Tk 3,000. We also have examples that workers in the sector get Tk 16,000–Tk 17,000 a month,’ Israfil said.
He said that factory owners should negotiate with the government on food rationing for workers which might ease pressure on them.
-With New Age input
