A senior lawmaker of Australian parliament has urged the big retailers to take more responsibility for ensuring decent wages in the readymade garment (RMG) sector in the apparel exporting countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China and Vietnam.
"The big companies should take more responsibility for ensuring decent minimum wages and working standard, and they should not abandon a producer or a country just to get low price from other sources," Laurie Ferguson, a Federal Member of Parliament for Werriwa, New South Wales, told BSS recently.
Mr Ferguson, a lawmaker for over 26 years, is now visiting Bangladesh. Among the major objectives of his visit is to see the factory and labour standard in the apparel sector.
He said countries like Bangladesh should not be blamed for low wages because the big companies from Germany, France, the USA and some other countries always "force" producers and exporters to cut cost, which eventually resulted in low wages for workers,
"The big companies should not be allowed to put pressure on producers to cut cost," Mr Ferguson said.
Sometimes, he said competition among companies also leads to low wage. For instance, he referred to the securities and cleaning companies in Australia as they always offer lower price to get the jobs at the cost of their workers' wage.
"This is dangerous (for workers)," he said, adding "That is why we are fighting internationally for minimum wages and minimum conditions so nobody goes below the standard."
"I visited a factory here, which was clean, safe and good," said the lawmaker who has special interest in foreign affairs, immigration, housing, environment, overseas aid and industry development.
He, however, said that he was not able to see many factories, but have the impression that the overall situation including the minimum wages for garment workers in Bangladesh are increasing.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told the journalists last month that the garment workers of the country are now getting 300 per cent higher wages compared to what they used to get five years ago.
Regarding bi-lateral trade between Bangladesh and Australia, Mr Ferguson expressed his high hope saying that the bilateral trade between the two countries would grow phenomenally.
"The bi-lateral trade volume between Bangladesh and Australia surged from US$100 million to $1.0 billion in the past decade. The volume would increase manifolds in the next 10 years," he said.
The lawmakers expressed the hope that the recently re-launched Australia Bangladesh Business Council (ABBC) would help boost two-way trade between the countries.
Through its national office based in Sydney, ABBC provides regular activities and events for the business community showcasing opportunities to and from the business communities of each country, providing networking opportunities with key stakeholders, businesses and government officials and acknowledging and celebrating exciting success stories of bilateral businesses.
Currently, Australia mainly imports from Bangladesh garment, bed, table, toilet and kitchen linen, woven fabrics of jute or of other fibres and floor coverings and exports fertilisers, cotton, vegetables and wheat.
Another report adds: Some 10,800 women of five northern districts would be facilitated with formal employment in readymade garment (RMG) factories.
The Northern Areas Reduction-of-Poverty Initiative (NARI) project, supported by the World Bank (WB), will provide training, transitional housing and counseling to prepare themselves for the jobs.
To this end, training for around 900 beneficiaries of first batch is scheduled to begin on January 2015.
The trainings will be for three months period and technical curriculum would include training in cutting, sewing, and quality control.
The five districts are Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Rangpur.
The construction of dormitories and training centres in three sites in Dhaka, Karnaphuli, and Ishwardi Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are completed and ready for handover.
The training centres will accommodate cohorts of 300 trainees.
A monthly US$10 stipend will be provided to trainees (for three training period) in addition to secure housing, food, training, job placement facilities.
Once they find a job they may continue staying at the centres for three additional months but will pay subsidised amounts for food.
The dormitories attached to the training centre will accommodate 600 women for a transitional period of six months at a time.
The trainees will also receive skill training covering topics such as adjustment to city life, savings and remittances, safety and security, rights and responsibilities at the work-place, finding appropriate housing and contract negotiation and health among others.
An Information Education and Communication Campaign will be launched in the five target districts to raise awareness and select the candidates and help the transition to training and formal employment at EPZs sites by January 2015.
The WB has approved concessional IDA financing of $29.29 million for this project. The project closing date has been extended to October 31, 2017.
Australian MP for decent wages in RMG sector
FE Team | Published: November 17, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like