The board formed to re-fix the minimum wage for the garment workers at
its meeting on Monday finalised a new minimum wage structure at Tk
5,300 only to be rejected by the owners. “We finalised the new
minimum wage structure for RMG workers at Tk 5,300 at today’s meeting.
However, the owners’ representative walked out from the meeting,”
Sirajul Islam Rony, the workers’ representative to the board, told
journalists.
He said the owners’ representative finally proposed a minimum wage of
Tk 4,500 while the workers’ representative proposed Tk 5,300. “As we
couldn’t reach a consensus in finalising it, we went for vote and the
majority of the board members voted for us (workers).” “As RMG
owners will implement the wage structure, we had wanted to reach a
consensus, but the owners’ side unfortunately didn’t accept our
proposal,” Rony said.
He said the wage board has already sent a draft of the fresh RMG wage
structure to the Ministry of Labour and Employment. On October 31,
the wage board also held a marathon meeting, but could not reach an
understanding in finalising the new wage structure as the owners’
representative proposed Tk 4,250 as the minimum wage.
Earlier, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association
(BGMEA) decided to raise the basic wage of the workers to Tk 2,600
from the existing Tk 2,000, Tk 1,040 as 40 percent house rent, Tk 240
as medical allowance, Tk 250 as transportation allowance and Tk 300 as
food subsidy.
However, the labour leaders had stuck to their demand for Tk 8,114 as
the minimum wage. In June this year, the Labour and Employment
Ministry formed the six-member wage board, headed by K Roy, a former
district judge, giving six months’ time to fix the minimum wage for
the garment workers.
The third wage structure came into effect on November 1, 2010, when
the minimum wage of garment workers was increased to Tk 3,000 per
month from Tk 1,662.50. – UNB
