50pc RMG units yet to pay new wages

Workers of about 15 per cent of the surveyed readymade garment (RMG) factories are yet to get enhanced wages even three months after the new wage structure was announced, according to the BGMEA.
However, labour leaders alleged that 50 per cent of the factories are yet to implement the new wage structure. They said the number of non-implementing factories is higher in Dhaka metropolitan city compared to those in different industrial zones like Ashulia and Gazipur.
They said mainly dearth of job opportunities has forced the workers not to raise their voices against the non-compliant owners.
On the other hand, the government has no clear information about the wage implementation in the garment sector.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), however, conducted a survey on about 1,500 manufacturing units in Dhaka and its surrounding areas. It revealed that 85 per cent of the surveyed factories had paid wages in line with the newly- announced wage structure.
It is about 80 per cent for the factories located in the port city of Chittagong, according to the BGMEA.
"Our monitoring teams have visited about 1,500 garment units and found that 85 per cent of the units have paid wages as per the enhanced wage structure," BGMEA vice president Md Shahidullah Azim told the FE Saturday.
The ratio is almost 80 per cent in Chittagong, he said explaining that the rest will also implement the enhanced wages gradually.
"The sector is passing through a very crucial time due to different challenges including ensuring various safety measures while orders from buyers have also decreased in recent times," he explained.
"Till now, none has any complaint about not getting the enhanced wage, not even by any garment worker or any labour organisation," Mashiur Rahman, Additional Inspector General of the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments said.
He said about 82 per cent of the garment units across the country paid the enhanced wages in January last.
But he could not provide any information regarding the payment for February.
Nazma Akter, President of the Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation, alleged that many big factories paid the enhanced wages while many of them degraded the workers at the time of payment.
"I have doubts whether 50 per cent of the factories paid the enhanced wages," she said adding almost all the factories located in Mirpur, Malibagn, Mohakhali, Badda and Rampura are yet to pay the new wages.
"Owners have stopped fresh recruitment while thousands of workers have lost their jobs since December to February,"  Sirajul Islam Rony, President of the Bangladesh Jatiya Garments Sramik Karmachari League, said.
Workers are not protesting due to scarcity of job opportunities along with other challenges of the sector, he explained.