Close on heels of the third wage board meeting held recently to decide on the base wage for the garment workers, various workers’ unions/bodies have reportedly decided to protest the proposed wages as put forth by the stakeholders, and press home their demand for BDT 16,000 as the minimum wage.
It may be mentioned here that in the meeting, labour leaders reportedly proposed BDT 12,020 as the base wage while the garment manufacturers proposed a minimum wage-rate of BDT 6,360.
Not happy with the developments, several workers’ unions, including Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre and Ganasanghati Andolan, have decided to hold protest rallies. Leaders of these two trade unions (Joly Talukder of Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre and President of Ganasanghati Andolan, Taslima Akhter) reportedly announced their future course of action in separate press meets in capital Dhaka recently.
“The owners’ offer has made it clear that they, in collaboration with the Government, are going to stage a farce in the name of raising workers’ pay,” Joly reportedly underlined while Taslima reportedly demanded fixing the workers’ wage after running a check by a ‘neutral’ agency on the owners’ financial capacity.
If Joly has announced a protest rally in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on July 20, another workers’ body, the Movement for Garment Workers’ Rights (a platform of 12 organisations), has decided to organise a protest rally at Shahbagh on July 21.
The organisations have also reportedly decided to hold a token hunger strike in front of the BKMEA office on July 25 and another one in Chittagong on July 27.