Reiterating the government's strong stance on the issue of implementing the tripartite agreement on minimum wage, Md Anwarul Iqbal said any misconduct with the workers by the factory owners in contravention of the wage and labour laws will severely be dealt with.

He also urged the workers to refrain from any destructive activities in the RMG units.

The adviser was speaking at 'National tripartite meeting on social compliance in RMG industry,' jointly organised by International Labour Office in Dhaka, commerce ministry, and labour and employment ministry in the capital.

Secretary to commerce ministry Feroz Ahmed and Secretary to labour and manpower ministry Ashfaque Hamid spoke at the meeting, which was also attended by Director of ILO Dhaka Gopal Bhattacharya, Secretary General of National Coordination Council for Workers' Education Mejbahuddin Ahmed among others.

The meeting was organised to elicit views from the social partners on the issues and challenges of social compliance in the RMG sector, review the progress made in this regard, and jointly draw action plans on labour and social standards.

With regard to social compliance, Gopal Bhattacharya has put some recommendations on the table including effective enforcement of the labour laws, development of long-term partnership with the stakeholders, and linking the compliance issue with factory inspection system.

The issues that the workers' representatives have raised include violation of workers' rights such as non-payment of overtime bill, non-implementation of minimum wage, lack of health and safety measures, need for freedom of association and retrenchment and maternity benefits.