Hike in RMG workers' wages before Ramadan
Thursday, 29 April 2010
FE Report
The government Wednesday urged the garment workers to refrain from violence, saying that their wages will be increased within the next three months.
The announcement came following two recent violent unrests at Mirpur and Narayanganj that jolted the country's highest foreign currency earning sector.
A new wage board comprising union representatives, manufacturers and industry experts has been set up to propose new basic pay scale for the country's 3.0 million apparel workers, said Labour and Manpower Minister Mosharraf Hossain.
"It will be implemented before the month of Ramadan considering their living cost at present," he told reporters at a press briefing after a meeting.
The meeting took place between the apparel makers and high-ups of the Labour and Employment Ministry at the ministry Wednesday.
The minister and the garment manufactures blamed vested quarters for hatching conspiracy to destabilise the country potential money earner.
"Stern action will be taken against saboteurs," Mr Musharraf cautioned.
At present, an RMG worker gets a basic salary of Tk 1,664 per month.
The industry has been witnessing a number of protests this year over demand for wage hike resulting in a series of clashes with law enforcers that left four workers killed and hundred others wounded.
Thousands of workers in the morning staged demonstrations at Narayanganj and Mirpur industrial areas demanding minimum monthly salary of Tk 5,000 and other financial benefits for the second straight day.
Witnesses said workers of Opex garment and Sinha textile blockaded Rokeya Swarani, which connects northern part of the capital with the central Dhaka and ransacked several garment factories at Mirpur halting traffic movement.
Chase and counter-chase also took place at about 9:30am when police charged batons and lobbed several tear gas shells to disperse the agitating workers and clear the main road for vehicular movement that left at least 30 people injured.
In Narayanganj, unruly workers of Arrow Apparels Anirban and Arrow Apparels Mohammadi blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet highway for two hours demanding pay rise, grinding traffic to a halt.
They also damaged a number of vehicles.
Garments accounted for nearly 80 per cent of Bangladesh's 15.56 billion dollars export last year. The country's 4,500 factories employ around 40 per cent of the industrial workforce, most of them women.
Leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country's apex apparel body, feared that the violence could send negative signals to the global buyers driving them to other countries with orders.
"We want wage for workers to increase. But some people, who don't want the sector to flourish further, have been instigating the workers by capitalising on the issue," BGMEA acting president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said.
He sought adequate security for their units at the industrial areas.
"If such violence continues we'll lose our foreign markets and will help our competitors to grab export orders from international buyers," he said.
The government Wednesday urged the garment workers to refrain from violence, saying that their wages will be increased within the next three months.
The announcement came following two recent violent unrests at Mirpur and Narayanganj that jolted the country's highest foreign currency earning sector.
A new wage board comprising union representatives, manufacturers and industry experts has been set up to propose new basic pay scale for the country's 3.0 million apparel workers, said Labour and Manpower Minister Mosharraf Hossain.
"It will be implemented before the month of Ramadan considering their living cost at present," he told reporters at a press briefing after a meeting.
The meeting took place between the apparel makers and high-ups of the Labour and Employment Ministry at the ministry Wednesday.
The minister and the garment manufactures blamed vested quarters for hatching conspiracy to destabilise the country potential money earner.
"Stern action will be taken against saboteurs," Mr Musharraf cautioned.
At present, an RMG worker gets a basic salary of Tk 1,664 per month.
The industry has been witnessing a number of protests this year over demand for wage hike resulting in a series of clashes with law enforcers that left four workers killed and hundred others wounded.
Thousands of workers in the morning staged demonstrations at Narayanganj and Mirpur industrial areas demanding minimum monthly salary of Tk 5,000 and other financial benefits for the second straight day.
Witnesses said workers of Opex garment and Sinha textile blockaded Rokeya Swarani, which connects northern part of the capital with the central Dhaka and ransacked several garment factories at Mirpur halting traffic movement.
Chase and counter-chase also took place at about 9:30am when police charged batons and lobbed several tear gas shells to disperse the agitating workers and clear the main road for vehicular movement that left at least 30 people injured.
In Narayanganj, unruly workers of Arrow Apparels Anirban and Arrow Apparels Mohammadi blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet highway for two hours demanding pay rise, grinding traffic to a halt.
They also damaged a number of vehicles.
Garments accounted for nearly 80 per cent of Bangladesh's 15.56 billion dollars export last year. The country's 4,500 factories employ around 40 per cent of the industrial workforce, most of them women.
Leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country's apex apparel body, feared that the violence could send negative signals to the global buyers driving them to other countries with orders.
"We want wage for workers to increase. But some people, who don't want the sector to flourish further, have been instigating the workers by capitalising on the issue," BGMEA acting president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said.
He sought adequate security for their units at the industrial areas.
"If such violence continues we'll lose our foreign markets and will help our competitors to grab export orders from international buyers," he said.