Bangladesh : BGMEA agrees to govt recommendation of US$ 68 minimum wage

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Bangladesh : BGMEA agrees to govt recommendation of US$ 68 minimum wage

Bangladesh garment factory owners have conceded to the government recommendation of a minimum wage of 5300 taka (US$ 68) a month. This is much lower than the workers’ demand of 8114 taka (US$ 100) a month. Sirajul Islam Roni, who represented the workers at the wage board and was also the president of the Bangladesh National Garment Sramik Karmochari League, welcomed the decision by the BGMEA and BKMEA leaders and the factory owners for accepting the new wage scale.

He urged the factory owners to implement the new wage scale from November, while also calling on the workers, who had been carrying out a movement demanding a minimum wage of Tk8,114, to accept the new wage scale and refrain from violence and agitation. However, another workers’ leader Moshrefa Mishu, president of Garments Workers Unity Front, said they would request the factory owners to increase the basic salary for the workers as they had been carrying out movement demanding Tk8,114 as the minimum wage.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers And Exporters Association (BGMEA) will also resume operations at the 250 factories in Ashulia, that had been closed due to labor unrest. The association hopes that this will end the labor protests. The BGMEA leaders in a meeting this week at the labor and employment ministry had demanded withdrawal of 0.80 percent tax at source, a separate exchange rate for the US dollar and easy loan for exportable goods, to compensate for the higher minimum wage the government had recommended. It could not be confirmed immediately whether the government had agreed to these demands for implementing the salary as recommended by the wage board.