Ready-made garment (RMG) workers will gain little from the new wage structure as the costs of accommodation, food, transportation and other basic requirements have gone up significantly in the country’s industrial belts, much ahead of its implementation.
Although garment makers and workers’ leaders agreed to the final recommendation by the wage board that had increased the minimum monthly wage for a worker to Tk 5,300 on last November 21, the gazette notification regarding the hike hasn’t yet been published.
After a visit to the densely populated industrial hubs like Ashulia, Savar and Dhaka, it was found that most of the landlords have already increased house rents by nearly 50 per cent on an average.
On the other hand, transportation fares, prices of kitchen items and other things have also gone up by 30 to 40 per cent there immediately after the announcement of the new wages.
Workers have expressed their serious concern over the sudden rise in their day-to-day expenses, saying they would not get the benefit of the 77 per cent wage-hike due to the illogical increase in house rents, as the rise in expenses in some cases might cost much more than the amount they would receive from the latest wage enhancement, which has come into effect from the current month.
Talking to the FE, Emamul Hoque, quality inspector of Bando Design of Sterling Group located at Sarkar Market area in Ashulia, said, last week his landlord had asked him to pay an increased amount in house rent from this December.
“Now, I will have to spend Tk 1300 instead of Tk 900 for a ‘pocket-room’ having no gas facility. But I’ll get Tk 1200 as house rent under the new wage structure,” he said, adding that the house owners had made the hike citing the latest wage of Tk 5,300 (US$ 68), which had been readjusted upward from the previous Tk 3,000 as minimum monthly wage.
Emamul is residing in a pocket-room of 54 square feet (sft) at Kandail of Yarpur Union in Ashulia.
Moslem Uddin, a sewing supervisor of the same factory, said he needed to pay an additional Tk 500 for house rent purpose from the current month under a revised rate.
“Khala (the female commercial food supplier) also raised her charge by Tk 300 from this month,” he said, adding that he had spent Tk 2,200 on food purpose monthly before the wage hike.
When contacted, commercial food supplier Salma Khatun, who delivers prepared food in Molla Bazar area of Ashulia, defended the increase, saying that it was not financially viable for her to serve a lunch box at Tk 25.
Not only the landlords or food suppliers, but also the transport operators, kitchen item traders and low-cost clothing shops, whose business is largely depended on the RMG workers, have increased their rates on the same grounds.
Belal Hossain, who works at a factory of Ha-Meem Group as helper, said van, a manually driven three-wheeler, drivers have increased its fares by Tk 4 per passenger for a journey to Jamgora from Narasinghapur.
Rezia, a helper at Al Muslim Group at Ulail in Savar, said laundry shop operators started taking Tk 2.0 extra from this week as iron charge for a shirt.
The workers have requested the government and apparel makers to do something that could help protect their earnings from the ‘opportunist’ groups.
Talking about the issue, RMG workers’ leader Baharine Sultan Bahar said this was an unexpected scenario that now prevailed in all of the country’s industrial zones.
He said garment workers had managed to achieve a pay-rise after a long struggle, but the benefit is being wiped out by rising living costs.
“Workers are the main engine of the country’s highest currency-earning sector. But unfortunately, they are always being used as a tool of income by others,” he noted.
Mr. Bahar, also president of Rental Council, a platform that fights against ill practices of the landlords, said the time has now come to take a step to implement house rent regulations and to strictly enforce the existing laws there.
“The nation might witness more bouts of violence in the coming days if the practice continues unabated,” he added.
In the face of violent demonstrations demanding better wages, the government formed a special team in 2012 engaging local lawmakers and the local administration to deal with the factors which pushed up the workers’ living cost at that time.
But the move bore no results even after frequent meetings with the landlords in the country’s key apparel industrial zones.
-With The Financial Express input
