Some rights groups handed over a memorandum to the Minimum Wages Board on Wednesday, demanding Tk 16,000 minimum monthly wage for local readymade garment (RMG) sector workers. Garment Sramik Odhikar Andolan, a group of 12 labour organizations, also demonstrated in front of the National Press Club to realize their demands. Their other demands included 50 per cent dearness allowance for the interim period before announcing new wage structure and annual 10 per cent increment. Labour leaders Moshrefa Mishu, Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, Taslima Akter Lima, Fakhruddin Atiq, Touhidul Islam, Shamsul Alam and Rafiqul Islam, among others, spoke on the occasion. After the demonstration they handed over the memorandum to the Wage Board. Terming the existing Tk 5,300 minimum wage inadequate and inconsistent in line with the growing living cost, Ms Mishu said, “Living expenses have gone up three times during the last three years, but wages of the garment workers have not increased.” All the expenditure, including house rent, transportation cost, prices of gas and electricity, cost of education, medical treatment and prices of daily essentials have increased, the labour leaders also said. The government has also announced a new pay scale for its officials considering the rising living cost, they added. “Workers also buy daily essentials from the same market. Why their wages won’t be increased,” Ms Mishu raised question, demanding Tk 10,000 as basic and Tk 16,000 gross minimum wage for the garment workers. When asked Mitsu Shaolin, secretary of the Wage Board, confirmed that they have received a memorandum from the rights group, which they will shortly forward to the ministry concerned. The last minimum wage was set Tk 5,300, raising 77 per cent, for the RMG workers in 2013. The government in July 2010 set Tk 3,000 as the minimum monthly wage for them, from Tk 1,662.50 fixed in 2006 and Tk 940 in 1994. The $25-billion export earnings sector employs more than four million workers, mostly women.
