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The government on Sunday formed minimum wage board to review the wages of the readymade garment workers through appointment of owners’ and workers’ representatives of the RMG sector to the board.
The government took the initiative to review the minimum monthly wages of workers and employees five years after the last review undertaken in 2018.
Labour ministry in a circular issued on Sunday announced that former Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Sidiqur Rahman and Bangladesh National Garment Workers Employees League president Sirajul Islam Rony have been appointed owners’ and workers’ representatives respectively of the wage board.
The appointed owners’ and workers’ representatives of the RMG sector would work with a four-member permanent board headed by senior district judge Liaquet Ali Molla.
Other permanent members of the board are: Bangladesh Employers’ Federation representative Moksud Belal Siddiqui, workers’ representative Jatiya Shramik League leader Sultan Ahmed and independent member Dhaka University professor Md Kamal Uddin.
In 2018, the minimum wage board set Tk 8,000 as the minimum monthly wage for the workers of the export oriented readymade garment sector with Tk 4,100 as basic pay, Tk 2,050 as house rent, Tk 600 as medical allowance, Tk 350 as transport allowance and Tk 900 as food allowance.
Readymade garment factory workers across the country and labour rights groups have staged demonstration for more than a year demanding pay hike of workers considering the growing living cost.
Garment Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, a platform of RMG sector trade unions, has demanded Tk 23,000 as minimum monthly pay for the garment workers.
Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity, demanded Tk 23,000 as minimum monthly pay with 65 per cent basic pay.
Garments Sramik Front demanded Tk 24,000 as lowest monthly wage for the garment workers.
Samajtantrik Sramik Front general secretary Razekuzzaman Ratan said that the minimum wage of RMG workers should be set at Tk 24,000 following high cost of living due to price hike of essentials.
(NA)
