New wage for RMG workers likely by November
Meanwhile, during the meeting of the wage board on the same day, a number of organisations, including the National Garment Workers Federation, held a sit-in programme in front of the wage board demanding a minimum wage of Tk24,000. They also submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the wage board
New wages for garment workers will be decided by November and implemented in the following month, said Liakot Ali Mollah, chairman of the Minimum Wage Board of the labour ministry.
"The board members will visit small, medium, and large garment factories in the country and submit proposals based on their findings," he said while speaking to reporters after a meeting of the board held at its office in the capital on Thursday.
He said the board will meet again in September.
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Representatives of readymade garment (RMG) owners and workers did not submit any proposals for the new wages during the second meeting of the wage board, as they wanted to hold further consultations.
"We will have more meetings with other workers, and then we will decide on the new wage proposal," said Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League President Sirajul Islam Rony.
Siddiqur Rahman, a representative of the RMG owners and currently industries and commerce secretary to the Awami League present at the meeting, said, "As the new wage will be implemented in December, there is time to discuss until then."
While the meeting of the wage board was taking place, some organisations including the National Garment Workers Federation, held a sit-in in front of the wage board office, demanding a minimum wage of Tk24,000 and giving individual memoranda to the chairman of the wage board.
An official of the wage board told TBS, "We have received memoranda from 13 organisations so far. These proposals were discussed in today's meeting."
The first minimum wage board in the RMG sector in Bangladesh was formed in 1984 at Tk560. So far, the wages of workers in this sector have been revised a total of six times. The latest minimum wage is Tk8,000, which was effective in December 2018. According to the labour law, new wages have to be fixed every five years.
According to statistics for December 2021, Bangladesh has the lowest wage among seven competitor countries – Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
For this purpose, the government formed a new wage board on 9 April 2023.
