Close on heels of Bangladesh Government announcing that the minimum wage would be Taka 8,000, which it did via a gazette published on October 8, rights group IndustriALL Bangladesh Council has demanded that the minimum wage for the workers engaged in the country’s readymade garment sector be fixed at Taka 12,020 a month.
“We earlier wanted the monthly minimum wage to be Taka 16,000… But after a meeting on Thursday, our management has decided to lower the demand to Taka 12,020 a month, which was also proposed by the workers’ representative at the minimum wage board for the garment workers,” said Secretary General of the rights group Salauddin Shapon.
Shapon further added that even if hiked to Taka 12,020, Bangladesh’s minimum wage will still be the lowest among the garment producing nations and that the sector would not face any challenge due to this increase.
The labour leader has reportedly also submitted a set of demands to the Chairman of the minimum wage board Syed Aminul Islam, calling upon him to reviewing the wage structure. The provisions in the law reportedly allow making recommendations within 14 days of the gazette’s publication.
It may be mentioned here that the Government has raised the minimum wage for readymade garment workers to Taka 8,000, likely to be implemented from December this year, which is almost 51 per cent increase over current minimum wage of Taka 5,300.
Earlier workers’ unions had been campaigning for a minimum wage of Taka 16,000, while garment owners had proposed an increase to Taka 6,360.
