The committee formed by the government will sit with both sweater factory owners and workers this week to resolve the dispute over payment and other related issues for piece-rate basis factory workers, sources said.
The labour ministry, early this month, formed a 12-member committee headed by a joint secretary. The committee comprises of four members each from the government side, sweater factory owners and labour leaders with two sweater factory workers who work on piece-rate basis.
The committee was formed to identify the problems and find out ways out of the prevailing problems through discussions, they added.
The move came following frequent complaints made by labour leaders that the sweater factory workers are being deprived of legal service benefits and that they are unlikely to be benefitted by the new wage structure for the garment workers as there is no clear indication of hike for piece-rate workers in the award.
The sweater factory workers also demanded hike in their piece-rate payment, food and transport allowance in accordance with the newly-announced wage award for garment workers.
"The first meeting will be held this week to identify the problems and the possible ways out of those," labour ministry joint secretary Faizur Rahman who is also the head of the committee, told the FE Saturday.
The committee will decide the next course of action to resolve the issues, he added.
Welcoming the government move, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) vice president Md Shahidullah Azim said the move to identify the sweater factory workers' problems with probable solutions will bring them into a system.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) vice-president Mohammad Hatem said 15 per cent of the total garment workers in the country get payments on piece-rate basis.
On an average, these workers earn Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 a month, he said adding even a worker can earn Tk 36,000 a month if his productivity is higher and his factory has adequate work orders.
Textile Garment Workers Federation president Mahbubur Rahman Ismail demanded hike of piece rates with other allowances like food and transports and also other service benefits.
Nazma Akter, a labour leader, said sweater factory workers never get any overtime allowance and other benefits like that related to leave which should be paid.
Traditionally, the sweater factory workers get their payment on piece-rate - the number of pieces they produce daily - and the rate is not fixed in the sector. They do not get other service benefits like overtime allowances, festival bonuses and leave benefits. Usually, it is the owners who set the piece rate.
In a recent clarification, the labour ministry said the sweater factory workers are not entitled to get overtime as they are employed on a contract basis, according to the section 108 of the labour law of 2006 and the same section has also been incorporated in the amended labour law of 2013.
