The decision of the government to make it obligatory for manpower recruiters to negotiate jobs from abroad complying with a wage structure fixed by it is a wise and timely one. Accordingly, the government will not accept, as announced recently, any job offers below the wage structure for outbound workers. The expatriate workers' minimum wages have been fixed in line with that of other countries exporting manpower and on the basis of discussions with officers concerned and Bangladesh embassies. The new decision on manpower export has long been overdue and a time-befitting one at that.
Over the decades, a sizeable number of expatriate workers sent through manpower agencies allegedly remained deprived of their legitimate wages. Finding it to be a means of making a quick buck, scores of dishonest elements once opened recruiting agencies. These crooked people, in fact, got engaged in defrauding innocent youths by assuring them of jobs abroad. The job seekers, thus, had to part with hefty amounts of money. The practice of cheating people of their money mostly borrowed or arranged by mortgaging lands and any other property, has blighted rural communities for long. The socio-economic impacts of the fraudulent activities resorted to by these people have at times led to the pauperisation of many youths and their parental families.
With the launch of a wage structure by the government for the expatriate workers, the irregularities are expected to disappear. It's because no manpower agencies or the worker-receiving countries can now fix migrant workers' wages on their own after the salary structure demand is approved by 11 manpower-employing countries. Fixing of wages involves Bangladeshi recruiters, the government and the overseas employers of less-skilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers. A review by a high-level meeting of the Steering Committee on Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry held in April, with the Prime Minister in the chair, recognized the formation of a uniform salary structure, as workers are frequently employed in the Gulf countries with lower than standard wages. Viewing the fact dispassionately, the resurgent spirit and productivity of workers in these destinations can be explicitly understood. But the agonised workers do not want sympathy. It's only by fixing wages commensurate with the standard wage structure of those countries that the discrepancies can be done away with.
In the countries where minimum wages are not fixed for foreign workers, the government needs to fixe those under a wage structure, the high-level meeting observed. A total of 11 countries now receive manpower from Bangladesh. They include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Libya, the Maldives, Kuwait, Jordan and Brunei. To elucidate, Bangladeshi workers now staying in the Middle Eastern countries receive an average minimum wage of Tk 29,000 per month. As per the government's wage structure, each Saudi-bound less-skilled worker will get Saudi Riyal 1,200-1,900 (Tk 35,000-Tk 55,000) per month-depending on which region they will be employed in - along with their food and accommodation. In the same way, the government-fixed wages in the United Arab Emirates are UAE Dirham 1,200-1,900 for a less skilled worker, and so on and so forth. The government-fixed wage structure for the expatriate workers is likely to end their exploitation, enhance their income and bring in more remittance for the country. It, hopefully, will put an end to the sufferings of migrant workers.
