Uniform minimum wage can protect workers from discrimination: Inu

Uniform minimum wages can protect workers across all sectors from discrimination, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said yesterday.

The minister spoke at the launch of a national campaign demanding declaration of minimum wage for agricultural labourers, at Cirdap auditorium in the capital.

Setting a minimum wage especially for the informal sector would at least put social pressure on the employers to act accordingly, Inu said at the event organised by Steps Towards Development and World Vision Bangladesh.

The issue of wage discrimination between men and women in the agriculture sector also came up in the discussion.

Md Ishrafil Alam, member of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry, said he would place a private member bill on registration and welfare of workers of the informal sector.

The bill would propose creation of a database for workers of the informal sector by registering them at union level and providing them with registration cards, which would carry certain privileges.

Work of 40.9 percent of the women involved in agriculture is recognised neither by the state nor by the society, said Ranjan Karmaker, executive director of Steps towards Development, referring to the findings of the 2014 study on economic justice for women.

The study was conducted by Steps Towards Development and World Vision Bangladesh.

"Though discrimination of wages varies across regions and seasons and between men in the agricultural sector, in all places and seasons women received the lowest wage because they cannot bargain," Karmaker said.

He said a minimum wage for this sector can address the discrimination faced both by men and women.

Minimum wage in the agricultural sector cannot be implemented without defining agricultural workers and ensuring that farmers get the right price for their produce, he said.