Representatives of RMG workers and factory owners did not submit any proposal for the new wages of garment workers during the second meeting of the wage board on Thursday as they want to further consult with workers.
“We will have more meetings with other workers and then decide the new wage proposal,” said Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League President Sirajul Islam Rony.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the office of the Minimum Wage Board on Topkhana Road in the capital, Liaquat Ali Mollah, chairman of the Minimum Wage Board, said, “The next meeting will be held in September. The board members will visit small, medium and large garment factories in the country and submit proposals based on this.
“The new wages will be decided by November and it will be implemented next December,” he said.
Wage board formed to review RMG workers’ pay
Siddiqur Rahman, a representative of the owners present at the meeting, said, “As the new wage will be implemented in December there is time to discuss until then.”
The meeting of the wage board formed for determining the wage of garment workers was previously scheduled for workers and owners to submit a proposal for the new wages of ready-made garment workers. However, no such proposal was submitted today despite all six members including owners, workers and neutral members being present in the meeting.
Workers protest in front of wage board building
Meanwhile, while the meeting of the wage board was taking place, some organisations including the National Garment Workers Federation held a sit-in programme in front of the wage board demanding a minimum wage of Tk24,000 and gave individual memoranda to the chairman of the wage board.
An official of the wage board told TBS on condition of anonymity, “We have received memoranda from 13 organisations so far. These proposals were discussed in today’s meeting.”
Garment workers protest demanding arrears, factory reopening in Savar
The first minimum wage board in the RMG sector in Bangladesh was formed in 1984 at Tk560. So far, the wages of workers in this sector have been revised a total of six times. The latest minimum wage is Tk8,000, which was effective from December 2018. According to the Labour Law, new wages have to be fixed every five years.
According to statistics of December 2021, Bangladesh has the lowest wage among the seven South Asian countries – Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia.
For this purpose the government formed a new wage board on 9 April 2023.
Former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Md Siddiqur Rahman and Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League President Sirajul Islam Rony were appointed owners’ and workers’ representatives respectively for the wage board.
