Body to suggest pay hike for MoA’s farm labourers
Rezaul Karim | Thursday, 3 March 2016
The government has moved to raise daily wages for agricultural labourers working under the agriculture ministry aiming to adjust their wages to recent market prices, sources said.
As part of the move, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has constituted a high-powered inter-ministerial committee, they added.
The eight-member committee will mainly review the country's current market price situation and other related issues and then submit a report to the secretary of the agriculture ministry. The report will be prepared within next one month.
"We have already decided to raise wage for agricultural labourers under the MoA and formed a committee to verify and review market prices," Deputy Secretary of the MoA Farhana Iris told the FE on Tuesday.
Presently, over 12,500 farm labourers are working across the country under the MoA. Of them, over 9,793 are working on a regular basis while 2,694 others on a temporary basis, official data showed.
Now a regular labourer gets Tk 300 and an irregular labourer Tk 260 as wage for every working day, according to the data.
"A new wage structure should be introduced for farm labourers, considering the country's present inflation trend as the government has already announced a new pay scale for public servants," General Secretary of Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation Abdul Mazid told the FE on Tuesday.
He claimed that the labourers working with different agencies under the MoA are being deprived of their rights, although they make a significant contribution to the country's economy.
He, however, hailed the government's move to raise wages for its farm labourers.
Most of the agricultural labourers in the country have long been facing hardship with their family members. So, the government should double the wage for farm labourers, a labour leader said, adding that they only get paid based on their work.
It is mentionable that agricultural labourers are working with different farming projects being taken up by the government.
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