New wage board formed for garment workers
The government has formed a new minimum wage board to review and recommend the monthly salary for more than 4 million garment workers.
The new board was formed on Sunday, Md. Towfiqul Arif, additional secretary to the labour ministry, told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday.
The chief of the six-member board is Liaquat Ali Molla, a senior district judge, who is also the chief of the permanent minimum wage board of the government.
"We told the board for holding the first meeting as soon as possible," said Arif, who is acting as the coordinator of the wage board on behalf of the ministry. A gazette may be published soon, he added.
The last minimum wage for garment workers came into effect in December 2018. It fixed Tk 8,000 as the minimum monthly salary, up 51 percent from Tk 5,300 fixed in 2013.
The wage board also comprise representatives from factory owners, garment workers and the Bangladesh Employers' Federation, an independent member and a senior government official.
Md. Siddiqur Rahman, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), is representing the factory owners in the new board, according to Faruque Hassan, the current president of the sector's apex trade body.
Sirajul Islam Rony, president of the Bangladesh National Garment Workers Employees League, is representing the workers on the new board. He was also the workers' representative on the minimum wage board in 2013.
The new board will hold the first meeting soon, Rony said, without disclosing the exact date.
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