Cabinet committee okays report on 9th wage board award
The report will be placed before the full cabinet after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returns from England on August 5
The cabinet committee for the ninth wage board award for journalists and employees of newspapers and news agencies has finalised its report for cabinet endorsement.
The report will be placed before the full cabinet after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returns from England on August 5, said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.
“The cabinet committee at its fourth meeting today [Thursday] has finalised the report on the ninth wage board award,” Quader, who heads the seven-member committee, told reporters at a press conference at the Information Ministry on Thursday.
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He further said the government will publish a gazette of the ninth wage board award after the Cabinet approval.
Quader, also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League, said the committee prepared the report after holding meetings with the stakeholders concerned in phases and prepared a “realistic and logical” report.
In reply to a question about new wage board for electric and online media, the minister said it is mentioned in the proposed Media Employees Act (Conditions of Service) which is now in the Law Ministry for vetting.
On January 29, 2018, the government formed the ninth wage board led by retired Appellate Division Justice Mohammed Nizamul Huq to set a new salary structure for workers of newspapers and news agencies.
Later, the government announced that journalists and other employees of newspapers and news agencies will receive 45 percent dearness allowance, effective retrospectively from March 1.
The head of the ninth wage board, retired Justice Mohammed Nizamul Huq, subsequently submitted the committee’s recommendations to the then information minister Hasanul Haq Inu at his Secretariat office on November 4.
The ninth wage board recommended an 80 percent base salary increment in the top three wage grades and an 85 percent raise in the bottom three grades.
The eighth pay structure for newspaper and news agency workers was announced on September 15, 2013, boosting the base wage by 75 percent. It came into effect on September 11 of that year.
