A lot of the issues which plague our nation’s RMG sector, the primary engine of our economy, can be chalked up to the continued lack of cooperation on the part of foreign buyers. This has manifested in multiple strikes and other forms of protests over the years, and it is seemingly all coming to a head with the announcement of a new wage scale at the end of this year.
However, this still doesn’t address the elephant in the room -- that of international buyers using their bargaining power to keep RMG prices low and, in many cases, refusing to honour their contracts and pay what they owe in a timely manner.
The latter point came to the forefront of national discussion during the pandemic when, due to international buyers refusing to pay for the orders they had already made, the salaries of workers were withheld. This added to the debilitating economic pressure that workers already went through during the pandemic, due to a general halt of the global economy and the existing low wage scale.
Nowadays, this is even more pressing as an issue as buyers have no excuse to not honour their contracts, nor do they have any grounds to pay the same price they have always paid. Inflation is a global reality, which means that companies are having to charge higher for the same product. As foreign buyers have money to spend, there should be nothing inhibiting them from paying fair wages. After all, they built their brands on the backs of these workers. It is only right that they pay their dues.
The authorities need to collaborate with our numerous RMG associations to get better contracts and double down on efforts to have unscrupulous foreign buyers start playing ball and honour their contracts. It is incredibly unfair that Bangladeshi RMG workers have to keep suffering due to the greed of foreign companies.
Enough is enough.
