Basic payment in the ready-made garment (RMG) workers’ minimum wage structure has been declining in percentage rate since 2006, causing erosion in their earnings and other financial benefits, labour leaders alleged.
In 2006, basic payment of a seventh-grade or entry-level RMG worker was 68 per cent of his/her minimum monthly wage of Tk 1,662.50, which gradually declined to 67 per cent in 2010, 57 per cent in 2013, and 51 per cent in 2018, they explained.
The minimum monthly wage of an entry-level garment worker, fixed in 2018, is Tk 8,000 with Tk 4,100 as basic pay.
Many of the trade unions working in the garment sector are now demanding 65-70 per cent (of the total) as the basic pay, as the new wage board has been formed to review the workers’ wages.
Talking to the FE, Lovely Yesmin, a labour leader, explained that a garment worker does two to five hours overtime a day after her regular work and gets double payment for the additional work.
“The payment is given based on the basic wage. If the basic pay remains low, the owners become gainers by paying less while the workers loss their earnings significantly.”
Besides, other lawful financial benefits, including service benefit, maternity benefit and festival allowances, are also provided based on the basic.
Over the years, the workers are being deprived although the factory owners are earning hefty amounts by getting payments through US dollar. Now they are getting Tk 109 per dollar, she noted.
Ms Yesmin, central committee president of the Readymade Garments Workers Federation, added that the owners are always looking for ways to deprive the workers by paying less.
She demanded Tk 24,000 as the minimum monthly wage for an entry-level garment worker with 70 per cent basic payment.
Touhidur Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council, handed over a memorandum to Liaquet Ali Molla, chairman of the minimum wage board, on August 10, demanding Tk 23,000 as the minimum wage with 65 per cent basic payment.
The council also proposed the authorities concerned to abolish fifth and sixth grades of the pay structure. Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, president of the Bangladesh Textile Garments Workers Federation, in a recent demonstration said percentage of basic payment in the garment workers’ total package has been decreasing since 2006, which is not at all acceptable.
The workers are deprived of getting overtime, gratuity and maternity benefits properly when the rate of basic payment is reduced, he noted.
His union demanded Tk 25,000 as the minimum monthly wage with 65 per cent basic pay, saying the cost of living has gone up significantly.
The labour leaders said although Bangladesh is the second largest RMG exporter after China, its labour cost is the lowest.
RMG export earning along with the factory owners’ income has been increasing, but the workers are struggling to survive amid high inflation with low payment, they added.
They also demanded increasing annual increment to 10 per cent from the existing five per cent as well as abolishing fifth and sixth grades of the pay structure, alleging that the factory owners deprive the workers by keeping them under-graded.
On April 09, the government formed the wage board to review the minimum monthly wage for the garment sector. But, the representatives from workers and owners in the board are yet to make any proposal in this regard until August 10 in the board’s second meeting.
The current minimum monthly wage of an entry-level garment worker is Tk 8,000, fixed in 2018 – up from Tk 5,300, set in 2013.
RMG is the largest foreign currency earning sector that fetched US$ 46.99 billion in the last fiscal year, 2022-23, which is about 84.58 per cent of the country’s total $55.55 billion export earning, according to official data.
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