The government has provided a loan of Tk 1.16 billion to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to implement the new wage board for the workers of the state-run jute mills. The BJMC received the fund to pay the wages for eight weeks (January and February) under the latest wage board. As per the new scale, a worker’s minimum basic wage is Tk 8,300 per month which is double than the previous Tk 4,150. The workers will get minimum gross salary of Tk 14,350 each, the BJMC sources said. The fund has been allocated as an operating credit from the unexpected expenditure account of the finance division’s budget. The loan was disbursed on some conditions including the one that the BJMC will not be able to spend the money other than payment of the wages. However, the corporation has already handed over payslips to its workers in the middle of this month. The BJMC had announced the wage board in 2015 that took effect on July 01 of the same year. The total dues of the workers that stood at Tk 18.91 billion will be paid in phases, a senior official of the BJMC said. The wage board is being implemented against the backdrop of a strike of workers that claimed two lives in December last. Thousands of workers of nine state-run jute mills in Khulna-Jashore industrial belt went on strike on December 10 to press home their 11-point demand, including the execution of wage the board. The BJMC runs 26 mills, including three non-jute mills. An estimated 70,000 workers – permanent, temporary and day-labourers – are working in the state-owned jute mills. As the mills have been incurring huge losses over the years, the BJMC fails to pay the wages and other benefits to its workers regularly, insiders have said.
