RMG wage board fails to review workers’ wages

The first meeting of wage board for garment workers ended on Wednesday without setting a new pay structure.

At the meeting held in Dhaka, board members were expecting that they will be able to propose a certain amount as the minimum monthly salary for more than four million garment workers.

Providing more details, Chairman Liaquat Ali Mollah of the wage board said board members mainly introduced each other during today’s meeting.

On April 9, the Ministry of Labour and Employment formed the four permanent-member new wage board, headed by senior district Judge Liaquat Ali Molla, to review RMG workers’ wages.

The three other members are – Bangladesh Employers' Federation representative Moksud Belal Siddiqui, workers' representative Jatiya Sramik League leader Sultan Ahmed, and independent member Dhaka University Prof Md Kamal Uddin.

Besides, the ministry also announced the names of two members – former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Md Siddiqur Rahman and Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League President Sirajul Islam Rony as owners' and workers' representatives respectively.

As per the Bangladesh Labour Act and labour rules, the government will form a new wage board every five years and it will set a new wage structure.

In December 2018, the government-nominated board declared a new pay structure fixing minimum wages at Tk 8,000 per month.

Since early 2022, RMG workers had staged demonstrations several times demanding the formation of a new wage board, and Tk 24,000 as the monthly minimum wage, citing skyrocketing inflation in the country.