On 13th of September 2018, the minimum wage for Bangladeshi garment workers was fixed at 8.000BDT, which is largely insufficient for garment workers to live. The previous minimum wage, dating from 2013, was 5.300BDT and trade unions were demanding a substantial increase to 16.000BDT to compensate for inflation. On 26th of September 2018, after hundreds of garment workers gathered in a Bangladeshi Flag Rally in front of the national press club in Dhaka, this demand was submitted in a memorandum to the prime minister.
Speakers highlighted the following points:
- The announced 8.000BDT is for 7th grade workers, which are basically helpers, representing only 3% to 5% of the total garment workers. No minimum wage was announced for other types of workers, including the main driving force operators.
- Of the announced 8.000BDT (gross wage), only 4.100BDT is considered as basic wage, or only 51% of the gross wage. This means all aspects which refer to the basic wage, like overtime, festival bonus, service and retirement benefits, will be very low as well. For instance, if a worker gets 20BDT per hour for general duty, with this low basic wage, in doing overtime, she or he will get only receive 20,40BDT.
- No mention is made to a yearly wages increase rate, while trade unions recommend an annual inflation by 10% rather than the previous 5 %.
The following 4 demands are included in the memorandum:
- The announced wages have to be reconsidered and increased.
- Wages of all categories of workers have to be defined, including operators.
- The basic wage must constitute 70%, not 51% as currently is the case.
- Yearly wages increase must be 10%.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.