The government may form a minimum wage board for a pay hike for ready-made garment (RMG) workers following the ongoing labour unrest at Mirpur demanding the same.
The disclosure was made at a press briefing hosted Shramabhaban in Dhaka city on Monday.
Former shipping minister and a member of parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment Shajahan Khan says this after a tripartite meeting.
Labour ministry convened the meeting with garment factory owners and workers' leaders to address the unrest that has been raging since last Thursday.
The commotion at Mirpur-10 intersection stepped into the fourth consecutive day while workers also poured onto streets at Uttara on Monday.
"State minister for labour Monnujan Sufian will take make a move to form a minimum wage board to raise the wages of garment workers… after she comes back from Geneva," says Mr Khan.
Ms Sufian is leading a Bangladesh team to Geneva to attend the 110th International Labour Conference that will end on June 11.
Mr Khan tells the briefing that the government will distribute cards among garment workers so that they can buy daily essentials at low prices.
Urging the agitators to join factories, he alleges that BNP has instigated workers to create unrest to eclipse the festivity of the inauguration of Padma Bridge scheduled for June 25.
In the name of the trade union movement, vandalism in factories and chanting slogans against the prime minister are not acceptable, he maintains.
"BNP is trying to return to power by taking an unfair advantage of workers and such movements," he claims.
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment additional inspector general Mina Masud Uzzaman was present at the briefing.
The last minimum monthly wage for entry-level garment workers was fixed at Tk 8,000 in 2018, up nearly 51 per cent from the previous pay of Tk 5,300.
When asked, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Syed Nazrul Islam says they have endorsed labour leaders' demand for rationing cards amid the price hike of essentials.
Not only garment workers, but also workers in other sectors should get the cards as prices of daily commodities have shot up.
He, however, terms the current workers' move to raise wages 'irrational' as the wage board is formed after every five years as per law.
Next November and December is the scheduled time for the wage hike process, Mr Islam says.
"We also agreed about the formation of a new wage board before the scheduled time."
munni_fe@yahoo.com
