New wage board announced

This file photo shows a female worker sewing a shirt. The textile industry is the largest export sector of Bangladesh.

The government on Thursday announced a six-member wage board which will fix a new minimum wage for the garment workers.

AK Roy, a former district judge, will head the board, Labour and Employment Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju told reporters at the Secretariat Thursday.

Prior to briefing the journalists, the minister held a meeting with members of the newly formed wage board, which become the fourth board.

According to the rules, the board will have to submit its recommendations in six months.

"But we have requested the board to place its recommendations at the earliest possible time," Mikail Shipar, secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, told The Daily Star.

On May 11, Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddique announced the formation of a new wage structure for the garment workers in the wake of labour unrest at Ashulia area over better pay.

“Once the wage board is formed, the workers will receive salaries according to the new structure and it will come into effect from May 1, 2013,” Siddique said.

The third wage structure came into effect on November 1, 2010, when the minimum salary of garment workers was increased to Tk 3,000 per month from Tk 1,662.50 per month.