Labour Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju on Thursday said the Tk 5300 minimum wage recommended by the government-formed wage board for the garment workers would come into effect on December 1, 2013.
“The garment workers will receive the new wage from January next and they will get 5 percent increment on their basic salary every year,” the minister said at a meeting with labour leaders at the Secretariat.
“I hope the garment workers will be back to their workplaces from tomorrow (Friday). There’s a scope of meting out punishment for indulging in vandalism. No one will be spared for this.”
Pointing at the labour leaders, the minister said, “It’s your duty to save the RMG industry. If Bangladesh loses the market, then 42 lakh workers will turn unemployed. Who will take the responsibility?”
He continued: “If the industry doesn’t exist, there’ll be no worker. If there’s no worker whom then you (Laour leaders) lead?”
Mentioning that the garment sector is the highest earning sector in the country’s economy, the minister said the big buyers are not placing work orders because of unrest in the sector in Bangladesh.
At the meeting, Labour Secretary Mikail Shipper said, “I hope a gazette notification will be published in this regard by November 25.”
Of the Tk 5,300 minimum wage, the basic is Tk 3,000, house rent 1,200, medical 250, conveyance Tk 200 and food subsidy Tk 650 (per day 25 in 26 working day in a month).
In the new wage structure, he said, there is an increase of 76.66 percent of salary as the existing minimum wage is Tk 3000.
Addressing the meeting, Bangladesh Textile-Garments Workers Federation president Mahbubur Rahman demanded that Tk 3200 be maintained as the basic as proposed by the wage board.
In reply, the minister said, “We’ll think about your demand in the future.”
Readymade garment factory owners on Wednesday night agreed to pay Tk 5,300 as minimum wage for the entry-level workers.
The announcement came after a meeting of the representatives of the garment owners met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban.
Labour Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, State Minister for Labour Begum Monnujan Sufian and BKMEA President AKM Selim Osman were, among others, present at the meeting.
On July 6, a six-member minimum wage board was formed to re-fix the wage. On November 4, the minimum wage board recommended a Tk 5,300 minimum wage, which was rejected by both the workers and owners.
Though the RMG worker organisations are demanding that the minimum wage be fixed at Tk 8,114, the owners were reluctant to even accept even a lower amount recommended by the wage board.
Source: UNB Connect
