The Bangladesh Wage Board has called upon the stakeholders to rethink the minimum wage that they had proposed to the board earlier on July 16.
“We have asked the representatives to the board to review their respective wage proposals so that the gap between the two proposals can be narrowed,” reportedly maintained the Chairman of the board Syed Aminul Islam to pressmen after the fourth meeting of the board held at its office in capital Dhaka, adding, “Both the representatives assured the board that they would take necessary measures in this regard through discussions with the respective sector leaders…Hopefully, the board would be able to yield a fruitful result on the review in the board’s next meeting to be held on September 12.”
It may be mentioned here that in the proposal submitted to the board earlier, factory owners’ representative proposed minimum wage of BDT 6,360 for the RMG workers, while the workers’ representative proposed base wage of BDT 12,020.
The issue of finalising the minimum wage for the RMG sector is in the limelight for quite some time now with even the global bodies demanding better minimum wage for the workers.
In the run-up to the latest meeting of the wage board, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and Maquila Solidarity Network jointly urged brands to support the demand for minimum wage of Taka 16,000, a statutory framework to govern pay grades and promotion and other welfare measures while also expressing gratitude to Inditex – the owner of Zara, Bershka, Pull and Bear and several other labels – who were the first to publicly respond in a positive manner.
Inditex reportedly published a statement on their website, in which they wrote: “We believe in the right of workers to a living wage, in Bangladesh and in all the markets from which we source. Therefore we expect the collective demands of workers, expressed through their legitimate unions including IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, to be taken into account, and the current negotiations used to reach agreement for a fair increase in the minimum wage that preserves the right of workers to a living wage.”
