Bangladesh Announces Revision Of Wage Structure System For Domestic Garment Industry Workers

The news was announced by Khandaker Mosharraf Hossian, Minister of labor at Bangladesh, at a recent press conference, including the chairman of the Remuneration Committee Ikteder Ahmed, AK Azad, chairman of the Bangladesh Federation of Commerce and industry (FBCCI), Abdus Salam Salam, chairman of Bangladesh garment manufacturing export association (BGMEA), and Chairman of Bangladesh knitwear producer and exporter Association (Chairman).

According to the newly launched

The new wage structure will take effect 14 days after the announcement is made in the official gazette of the government.

In the meantime, according to the law, either side of the employer or the worker can raise objections to the board.

During the signing of the agreement, factory owners visited the government and the wage board, hoping to delay the implementation of the new wage policy for 4 months and seek new industrial stimulus policies.

Finally, the government agreed to delay the implementation of the new wage system for 3 months.

The Minister of labor said the new wage system should have been implemented second weeks before September, so that garment industry workers celebrate the arrival of Muslim fast breaking Festival.

Clothing industry workers also said that, due to the delay in the implementation of the wage system, 25 million workers would not be able to get an increase in wages and holiday bonuses during the Eid period.

Industry analysts pointed out that the delay in 3 months of wage increases would save the factory owners about 20 billion Tucca funds.

And factory owners said that since the cost of products was determined and calculated according to the current wage level, they need time to renegotiate export prices with foreign importers.

The chairman of the Bangladesh garment manufacturing export association (BGMEA) believes that the rise in wages is not the worst thing for industrial employers, relative to the decline in product prices caused by the global recession and the impact of energy and electricity shortages on normal production.

But he also said that these adverse factors have put pressure on factory owners to raise wages for workers.

The representative of the "garment workers solidarity forum", one of Bangladesh's leading clothing trade unions, pointed out that workers do not accept the minimum wage of 3000 tucas.

Therefore, in the past 6 months, the three party salary Board representing the government has come to mediate the 14 rounds of negotiations between workers and employers.

Industry employers say the new wage system will reduce their profits and make Bangladesh's apparel industry face difficulties in global competition.