Bangladesh Government has finally formed a New Wage Board to fix the minimum wage for the apparel workers in the country; recommendations will be filed in the next six months.
State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu announced the establishment of the Board on January 14, 2018, at his Bangladesh Secretariat Office – tagging one representative from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the workers with the four permanent members.
“The Board will recommend the pay scale of garment workers within the next six months. After that, the Government will set the new pay scale,” he told reporters in the briefing.
The last wage board for Bangladesh’s apparel workers – which fixed BDT 5,300 as the minimum pay – was fixed on December 1, 2013. The workers got the revised pay from January 2014. As a five-year follow-up, according to the labour regulations, the Government has formed a board to fix the new pay scale.
“We hope, we will be able to give the workers a fresh wage board before the five-year completion of the previous pay scale,” State Minister Chunnu said at the briefing.
Bangladesh’s apparel industry now has 3.6 million workers, according to the latest report of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies. It is to be noted that most of the workers in the industry are women.
It was after some major industrial disasters like fire at Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza building collapse that the low pay of Bangladesh’s apparel workers came to light. Now, however, the garment manufacturers have moved on their own will to implement a fresh wage board for the workers.