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RMG workers’ purchasing power falls in pandemic

Staff Correspondent
20 May 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 20 May 2022 06:50:45
RMG workers’ purchasing power falls in pandemic
Salaries have increased since the pandemic lockdown in April 2020, but this is largely due to the increase in the number of hours worked each month – The Business Post Photo

With the rising cost of living, even with higher income earned through extra work, the purchasing power of ready-made garment (RMG) workers declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, a research has found.

South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) conducted the research titled ‘The Lives of Garment Workers During COVID-19 which has been published officially at a webinar on Thursday.

The survey collected data from 1,300 RMG workers of Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Ashulia and Chattogram.

The study claimed expansion of the supply capacity to meet additional demands and compelling the workers to work extra hours which is not sustainable.

According to the survey, workers were back to work quickly after the pandemic lockdown in April 2020. The number of hours they have been working has increased ever since. In addition, they worked especially long hours in the run up to Eid al-Adha in July 2020 and again in June 2021.

The survey found that the salaries have increased since the pandemic lockdown in April 2020, but this is largely due to the increase in the number of hours worked each month. The male workers got Tk 10,000 while women workers got Tk 8000 in May 2020 which was promoted to TK 13,000 and Tk 12,000 respectively.

As per the study, the rent of workers is increasing year on year. Rent payments were Tk 2500 in 2017 which rose up Tk 3000 in 2018. In December 2020, the typical rent payment increased to Tk 3,100 and has been generally on the rise ever since. As of March 2022, the typical monthly rent payment made by a garment worker was Tk 3,500, representing a 17 per cent increase over a period of two years.

The study also focused on workers’ spending on food. Between September 2020 and January 2022, rice increased in price by 12.5 per cent. The price of per kg rice was Tk 40 in January 2017, Tk 48 in September 2020 and Tk 54 in January 2022.

The survey said that in April 2020 the government introduced a wage support program for the RMG sector to cover a portion of the monthly wages of workers. The program ran for three months and stimulated a massive digitization of wages in the RMG sector—about two million accounts were opened. Since the end of the program many factories have reverted to paying their workers in cash.

The research found satisfactory progress with vaccination (first dose) but lacked data to assess the status of the second dose. As per the study, 80 per cent of the respondents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The share of female respondents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine is 77per cent while the share of the male respondents is 88 per cent.

Children’s education also suffered during the pandemic due to lack of access to the infrastructure supporting online education. 53 per cent of correspondents offered no online classes, 26 per cent offered online class but not frequently, 11 per cent offered online class while 5 per cent do not know about online class and 5 per cent said not applicable.

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