New wage board for garment workers on cards

The government has asked apparel business owners and employees to send names of their representatives in the upcoming wage board set to be formed to hike wages and help industry workers cope with the current inflation crisis.

While labour leaders have sounded optimism over the labour ministry's decision to form a new wage board to hike wages, at least one business leader told The Business Standard that the raise would add to their worsening production cost pressures.

Mohammad Hatem, executive president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the repeated hikes in energy tariffs are already constraining the industry's competitiveness in the international market. New wage hikes would only worsen the problem, Hatem said, adding he expects the wage board to be formed soon.

Sirajul Islam Rony, president of the Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League, also said he hopes a new wage board would be formed within a week. His organisation has already sent a list of potential representatives.

Md Towhidur Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Garments Workers Unity Council, said he welcomes the government effort to form a new wage board in the backdrop of rising consumer prices choking garment workers.

He, however, expects adequate representation of workers in the board to make the initiative meaningful.

The Workers Unity Council, a platform of seven associations of garment workers, in this very month demanded a new wage board and minimum wages of Tk22,000.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association have also confirmed receiving letters from the labour ministry seeking names of their representatives.

The country currently has government-announced minimum wages in 42 sectors. There are about 50 other sectors, such as the domestic work and transport sector, which are not covered by the national wage structures. 

The labour law, amended twice in consultation with development partners and local stakeholders, requires forming of a new wage board every five years to settle wage structures for every industry. The law also allows forming a wage board every three years in special situations.

The last wage board was formed in early 2018 and in December that year minimum wage of Tk8,000 was fixed for garment workers.

However, as consumer prices kept rising, demands of a new wage board kept growing and unrest erupted in the Mirpur area in the capital and other parts of the country in the middle of last year.

For the past few months, many organisations have been staging sit-ins and human chains to press home demands of a new wage board.