The Minimum Wages Board under the Labour Ministry yesterday unveiled the draft of the minimum wage structure for sawmill workers fixing the basic salary of an expert worker at Tk7,500, employee at Tk6,000 and apprentice at Tk4,500.
The draft was unveiled publicly to receive opinions and recommendations from stakeholders and experts by May 10.
The board will examine the suggestions after the deadline and will then submit those to the government.
It will be finalised after the government publishes it as gazette notification, Chairman of the board Shahidullah Bokaul said.
According to the draft, an expert worker working in grade I post will get Tk7,500 as basic salary. He will get Tk2,250, 30% of the basic, as house rent while both medical allowance and conveyance allowance will be Tk600.
Grade I workers will receive Tk10,950 in total as monthly payment. On a daily basis, it would be Tk420.
Expert workers working in grade II posts will get Tk6,000 as basic salary. They will get Tk1,800 as house rent, Tk600 as medical allowance, and Tk600 as conveyance allowance.
The monthly salary for grade II workers has been fixed at Tk9,000 which on a daily basis is Tk345.
As for semi-expert workers, they will be considered grade III workers. Their basic salary will be Tk5,000 while Tk1,500 will be given as house rent. They will receive Tk7,770 in total as monthly wage including medical allowance and conveyance allowance. Tk295 will be their payment on a daily basis.
On the other hand, non-expert grade IV workers will get Tk4,000 as monthly salary and Tk1,200 as house rent. Tk6,400 will be their total monthly. For one day’s work, they will get Tk245.
Tk4,500 will be the gross pay of apprentice workers. The three-month apprenticeship could be extended for another three months following completion of the first three months.
Meanwhile, the board recommended sawmill employees be paid Tk9,000 for grade I, Tk7,700 for grade II and Tk6,400 for grade III posts while basic salaries will be Tk6,000, Tk5,000 and Tk4,000 respectively.