Garment workers demand basic salary at Tk 7,000

A platform of garments workers' associations yesterday submitted a demand to the minimum wage board to raise the minimum basic salary of the workers to Tk 7,000 from Tk 3,000 now.
Garment Sramik Sangram Parishad, the platform, also demanded that all garment factories should provide at least 50 percent of the basic salary as festival allowance to the workers.
In a written letter they said a five-member family needs a minimum monthly amount of Tk 12,950 for subsistence.
The major expenses include house rent at Tk 3,000, daily commodities at Tk 5,100, medical and transportation costs at Tk 1,100, children's education expenses at Tk 1,500 and others Tk 2,250, they said.
Harun Ur Rashid Mahmood, member-secretary of the platform, handed over the letter to the board secretary where other leaders were also present.
In the absence of the board's chairman, its Secretary Mitsu Shaolin received the letter.
She said the board has no decisive authority to reset the wages rather it is the ministry, which holds that authority.
Later, the workers' leaders also submitted a memorandum to the director of the department of labour, pressing the same demand.
The wage board in 2010 had set the minimum monthly pay of garment workers at Tk 3,000 raising it from Tk 1,662.50 after considering the workers' demand for raising the same to Tk 5,000.