Reports claim that the review of wages for workers in nine sectors in Bangladesh is long overdue while adding the Labour Ministry has taken notice of this and has directed the relevant department to take necessary actions.
The sectors awaiting wage reviews include the tannery along with pharmaceuticals, tea packaging and ship breaking industries even as additionally, the list comprises privately-owned industrial sector workers, both adult unskilled and young workers, hotel and restaurant employees, tailoring industry workers, and cotton textile industry workers.
Interestingly, the type foundry sector is still on the list, even though in December 2021, the Department of Labour had suggested removing it as the industry has ceased to exist in the country for a considerable period.
Following its monthly coordination meeting on 12th July, the Labour Ministry has urged the concerned department to prioritise reviewing the wages for workers in these nine sectors.
According to Bangladesh’s labour law, the minimum wage for a sector should be reviewed every five years. In light of this, the meeting also discussed the ongoing processes of reviewing the minimum wages for workers in 14 other sectors. These sectors include the readymade garment industry, land ports, hosiery sector, petrol pump, ceramics, cement industry, soap and cosmetics, cold storage, jute press and belling, match industry, oil mills and vegetable products, ayurvedic industry, salt crashing, iron foundry, and engineering workshop.
Data from the minimum wage board reveals that the minimum monthly wage for type foundry workers was last set at Taka 521 in 1983. Furthermore, the minimum wage for privately-owned industrial sector’s adult unskilled and young workers was last reviewed in 2012, while the wages for workers in the hotel and restaurants, pharmaceuticals, and tea packaging sectors were last reviewed in 2017.
