The Wage Board has drafted its proposal recommending Tk 5,710 as minimum monthly wage for workers of the country’s cotton textile sector, officials said. A gazette notification was issued on January 24 in this connection seeking opinions and objections, if any, within 14 days of the notification. Fifteen days after the gazette notification, objections and opinions would be collected, a ministry official said. The Wage Board will scrutinise those and submit the recommendations to the Labour and Employment Ministry for finalisation. The wage for other grades of workers would increase proportionately, he said. The proposal suggested minimum monthly wage for workers of cotton textile mills in three categories-divisional, district and upzilla levels. The proposal suggested Tk 3,600 as basic wage for all categories of workers, 70 per cent of it as house rent for factories located in divisional cities, 40 per cent as house rent at the district level and 35 per cent at the upzilla level. A medical allowance of Tk 550 for all categories of workers has been suggested while Tk 500, Tk 400 and Tk 300 have been proposed as transport allowances at the divisional, district and upzilla levels respectively. A worker in the grade 10 living in divisional cities or at the district and upzilla levels would get Tk 7,110, Tk 5,990 and Tk 5,710 in monthly wage, according to the draft proposal. A worker in the grade 1 would get Tk 11,284, Tk 9,378 and Tk 8,977 with a basic pay of Tk 6,020 at the divisional, district and upzilla levels respectively. The last monthly minimum wage for the sector was fixed at Tk 3,302 in 2011. Jamal Uddin, managing director of Jamal Uddin Textile Pvt Ltd, owners’ representative on the Wage Board, said there are thousands of cotton textile mills across the country under several associations, including export-oriented mills under Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, trade bodies for Jamdani producers and specialised textile mills. The number of such mills that manufacture products for both export and local markets might be around 7,000 providing jobs for approximately 5.0 million workers, he noted.
