- BM Report:
Employers and workers cannot agree with the minimum wage, proposed by the garment factory owners, said the Industriall Bangladesh Council (IBC). It has observed that the proposal given by the factory owners is a mockery with garment workers.
On Sunday, at the 4th meeting of the Wage Board, representatives of employers and the workers presented their proposals separately. The owner side proposed Tk.10,400 and workers’ representative proposed Tk.20,393/-.
A group of 16 registered federations, IBC is the largest confederation of workers in Bangladesh’s garment sector. IBC President and labor leader Amirul Haque Amin, and general secretary Qutubuddin Ahmed, in a joint statement, rejected the offer of Tk 10,400.as proposed by owners. They said that this is a mockery of 4 million garment workers.
The leaders said that in 2018, the lowest wage was 100 dollars equivalent to 8 thousand taka; the current value of that 100 dollars is 11 thousand taka. But in the last 5 years, the price of goods, house rent, transportation fare, and other expenses have been doubled if not trebled.
Without considering all these things how the owners can propose a minimum wage of Tk 10,400, the IBC leaders wondered.
They also criticized the proposal placed by the labor representative at the board.
The leaders said, “All the alliances and 65 federations in Bangladesh together demanded a minimum wage at 23,000 taka. ‘How come the labor representative ignored that demand and offered Tk. 20,393,” the IBC statement read.
“The proposal given by the labor side is also mysterious and unacceptable for 42 lakh garment workers,” the IBD statement said.
The leaders rejected the proposals of both the owners and workers’ representatives and demanded again minimum wage of 23 thousand taka.
