The newly formed six-member wage board for garment workers will hold its first meeting on July 4 for working out a new wage structure for the country’s RMG workers.
The chairman of the board, retired district judge AK Roy, has asked the members to place their proposals on wages as per the grades at the first meeting.Sirajul Islam Rony, the representative of the workers and also the president of Bangladesh National Garment Workers Employees League, told New Age that he received a letter about the first meeting of the wage board on Monday.
He said he had been asked to place the grade-wise list of proposed wages.
‘I have already started to discuss with the workers’ groups to work out a proposal before the first meeting of the board,’ he said.
Sirajul said that the workers and workers’ groups have been demanding minimum wage of Tk 8,000 which is now Tk 3,000.
‘I think the minimum basic of the workers should be set at Tk 5,000 and I will set the proposal of the wages with the consent of the workers and workers’ groups,’ he said.
Factory owners representative of the board, Arshad Zamal Dipu, said as per the tradition, at the first meeting the workers’ representative will submit the proposal of wages to the board.
Board chairman has already asked the workers representative to submit the proposed wage structure to the board at its first meeting, he said.
Arshad said that after getting the workers’ proposal the other members of the board will discuses and give their opinion on the wage structure.
The new wage structure would finalised by the board chairman based on some criteria specified by the government and based on economic indicators, he said.
The government announced the six-member wage board for the garment workers in a gazette notification on June 6.
Besides retired judge AK Roy as the chairman of the board, other members are Kamal Uddin Ahmed, professor at the international business department in Dhaka University, Kazi
Saifuddin Ahmed, labour adviser to
Bangladesh Employers Federation, and Fazlul Haq Mantu, president of Shramik League.
According to the rules, the board will have to submit its recommendations in six months.
On May 11, Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul
Latif Siddique announced the formation of the new wage board for the
garment workers in
the wake of labour unrest in Ashulia area over
better pay.
The existing wage structure came into effect on November 1, 2010, when the minimum salary of garment workers was increased to Tk 3,000 per month from Tk 1,662.50 per month.
-With New Age input
