The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association is going to hold meetings with the trade union federations in the readymade garment sector to discuss the present situation of the RMG sector and what the minimum wage should be for garment workers.The BGMEA move comes following the formation of a wage board by the government on January 14 to review the minimum wage for garment workers.The trade body has already sent invitation letters to a number of trade union federations and it will begin the discussion process at the BGMEA building in Dhaka on Thursday with holding meeting with the federations affiliated with IndustriAll Bangladesh Council.BGMEA leaders said the initiative was a routine work on the part of the trade body and the BGMEA would hold meetings with trade union federations and the wage issue would be discussed as the wage board for the sector workers had been formed.‘We will hold three or four meetings with several trade union federation groups to know their opinions over what the minimum wage should be for workers and to inform the labour leaders about the present situation of the RMG industry,’ BGMEA vice-president Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu told New Age on Monday.If both the parties positively try to understand the present situation and capacity of the industry and the living standard of workers, the discussions would bring positive results for setting the minimum wage, he hoped.Labour leaders said that the BGMEA did not specify any agenda for the discussions but they thought the talks would centre around the minimum wage as the trade body was arranging the meetings just after the formation of a new wage board.‘We think wage-related issues would be discussed in the meetings with the BGMEA as the talks have been arranged against the backdrop of the formation of the wage board for reviewing the wages for garment sector workers,’ IBC general secretary Md Towhidur Rahman said.He said, ‘It [the meeting] is also one type of negotiations between apparel factory owners and trade union leaders and the worker federations affiliated with IBC would repeat its demand of Tk 16,000 as the minimum monthly pay for the workers.’Against the backdrop of workers’ movement in December last year and demand from several worker federations, the government has formed the minimum wage board for the RMG workers.In December 2013, a minimum wage board had set the lowest wage for garment workers at Tk 5,300, raising it from Tk 3,000 set in July 2010.
