Minimum wages board requests garment stakeholders not to spread confusion
Staff Reporter :
The Minimum Wages Board (MWB), set to fix the minimum wages of Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) workers, has urged stakeholders including garments workers’ leaders to refrain from spreading confusions regarding finalization of the minimum wages.
The MWB made the request in response to some incidents of road blocking and protests by workers from several garment factories in Gazipur’s Kaliakair upazila for multiple days this past week, demanding a minimum basic salary of Tk23,000.
The Chairman of the Minimum Wages Board, Liaquat Ali Mollah, requested to the workers’ leaders and others in a statement on Saturday.
In the statement, he said that the fourth meeting to recommend the minimum wages for the RMG workers and employees was held on October 22 in the meeting room of the MWB.
The said meeting was presided over by chairman of the board in presence of the independent member Prof Md Kamal Uddin, member representing ownership Maqsood Belal Siddiqui, member representing workers Sultan Ahmed, member representing owners of garment industry Md Siddiqur Rahman and Sirajul Islam Roni, member representing the workers employed in the garment industry.
“In the meeting, members representing the owners of the RMG industry and members representing the workers employed in that industry placed separate written wage proposals,” he added.
The board discussed the proposals in detail but no decision was finalized regarding fixing the new minimum wage of the RMG workers.
Discussions on fixing the minimum wage are still ongoing, Mollah said in the statement.
He also said that no decision was finalized until now.
“Therefore, it is requested that no one should be confused and should avoid spreading confusion among the workers in this regard,” he urged.
Earlier, on October 22, the workers’ representatives proposed Tk20,393 for the minimum wages for the RMG workers, while the owners’ representative proposed Tk10,400, both up from the current minimum wage of Tk8,000 that was set back in 2018 for entry level workers.
Liaquat Ali Mollah also said that they will further discuss the proposals from both the parties and then set a new minimum wage, which will be beneficial for both sides.
Meanwhile in a different program on October 27 at Topkhana, the IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC) has expressed concern over the situation arising in the garment sector on the issue of workers’ wages.
They demanded fixing the minimum wage of TK 23,000 for garment workers.
At the same time, the organization requested to continue the production process of the factory while maintaining the peaceful environment of the workers in the current situation.
The IBC also demanded 65 percent of basic wages, 10 percent annual wage hike and five grades instead of seven for readymade garment workers.
At the same time, the organization said, they do not in any way support vandalism of IBC factories, arbitrary work stoppages, and occasional road blockades.
