The government has announced Tk 12,800 as the minimum monthly wage for the country’s tannery workers with an increase by 46 per cent from the existing Tk 8,740.The government took the initiative to review the wages for tannery workers in April last year by appointing the representatives from the owners and workers to the wage board as the wages of the sector’s workers were last reviewed in 2011.The minimum wage board has finalised its draft proposal for the tannery workers and issued gazette on December 24, last year seeking, if there is any, written objections against or suggestions on the recommendation in 14 days.Later on, as no one had filed any objections or suggestions to the recommendations, the board sent its final recommendations to the labour ministry.In the wage structure, the government incorporated five grades for the workers while four grades were for the staff and employees.The labour ministry through a gazette notification on February 27 announced that the minimum wage for workers in grade-5 at Tk 12,800 includes Tk 7,000 as basic pay, Tk 4,200 as house rent, Tk 1,000 as medical allowance and Tk 600 as conveyance allowance.The government also announced that the minimum wage for the workers in grade-5 and residing in Savar and divisional towns would be Tk 13,500 as they would get Tk 4,900 as house rent. For grade-4 workers, the wage the ministry has set is Tk 15,710 as monthly gross pay for workers in divisional cities and Savar area and Tk 14,880 for workers in other areas. Monthly minimum wages has been set at Tk 17,920 for grade-3 workers in divisional cities and Savar area and Tk 16,960 for workers in other areas. For grade-2 workers, the ministry set Tk 21,150 as minimum monthly wage for divisional cities and Savar area and Tk 20,000 for other areas.Workers in grade-1 at divisional cities and Savar area would get Tk 25,400 as monthly minimum wage while workers in other areas might get Tk 24,000 per month, the ministry gazette said.It also set the wages for apprentice at Tk 7,000 saying that the period of apprenticeship would be six months.The labour ministry has incorporated the provision for 5 per cent yearly increment on the basic pay of tannery workers. The workers representative to the minimum wage board and Bangladesh Tannery Workers’ Union General Secretary Md Abdul Malek said that they had demanded Tk 16,000 as minimum monthly pay for the workers. He added that there were more than 30,000 tannery workers across the country.According to the Bangladesh Tanners Association, there were a total of 170 tanneries across the country.
