RMG workers' and owners’ survival

---

THE government has once more extended the time for the garment owners who are yet to implement minimum wage for their workers. This time, it can be expected that the owners will meet the legitimate demands of their workers and pay the minimum scale and overtime bill as per the government announced wage by August.
There is no doubt that the readymade garment sector in our country has been passing through a tough time because of the post-Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) challenges. Although the country's export volume from this sector has shown an upward trend after the phase-out of the agreement since 2005, the fact is that its earning has, however, not increased in accordance with the volume because of the low price offered by the buyers. They, in most of the cases, bring the issue of our status being a non-compliant country which is mainly raised because of some of our owners' unwillingness to meet the minimum requirement of the workers. But it is also true that our export earning from this sector is not on a strong footing as it is still dependent on the EU and USA's quota facilities. Many garment owners have already expressed their difficulties in implementing the government-declared minimum wage because of rise of production cost.
But it will also be unwise to lower the minimum pay scale of the workers from Tk 1600 when the living cost of these people too increased manifold from the previous wage of Tk 950 fixed more than a decade ago. As the garment owners have also to meet the social compliance issues including implementation of the minimum wage to their workers, there might be some arrangements taken by the government after consultation with all concerned so that both owners and workers can be benefited and our highest export earning sector can survive.
Md Nurun Nabi
Tejgaon
Dhaka