The minimum wage board on readymade garment (RMG) workers has so far received about 200 objections and suggestions from factory owners and workers over the recently announced Tk12,500 minimum wage.
The board also received letters from two civil rights campaigners, Transparency International Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast), which suggested reviewing the proposed minimum wages for the RMG workers in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) standard.
The minimum wage board on November 11 published its draft proposal through a gazette notification, recommending Tk12,500 as the minimum monthly wage for readymade garment workers.
The board published the proposal, seeking written objections or suggestions on the recommendation from stakeholders within 14 days.
As of Wednesday, the board received more than 200 objections with 168 letters from garment exporters and some 30 from different platforms of trade union federations.
According to the wage board officials, trade union federations in their letters demanded increasing the minimum wage for the RMG workers to Tk23,000-Tk25,000 while factory owners in their letters demanded reducing the proposed minimum wage to Tk10,400.
The minimum wage board would discuss the issues in the next meeting scheduled to be held on November 26 and would send a final proposal on minimum wage to the Labour Ministry.
Garments Sramik Andolan for Increasing Wages of Workers, a platform of 11 trade union federations, on November 12 put forward its objection letter to the wage board and demanded Tk25,000 as the minimum monthly wage for RMG workers.
Industriall Bangladesh Council, the local chapter of Geneva-based global rights group and a combine of 16 trade union federations in the RMG sector, on Wednesday sent a letter to the wage board and suggested resetting a ‘reasonable’ amount as the minimum wage through discussions with its affiliates and other right groups, saying that the proposed amount Tk12,500 was not compatible with the current living cost.
Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation on November 20 sent a letter to the wage board chairman, demanding an increase in the proposed wage to Tk23,000 with 65% basic pay.
The TIB in its letter on Tuesday termed the rate of minimum wage hike for the readymade garment workers “jugglery of figures” and said that it was not even a 30% increase in real terms.
