BGMEA to accept wage-board proposal

In an apparent bid to quell readymade garment workers' violent protests demanding wage hike, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), has said it will accept whatever salary structure the wage-board will fix.

After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with workers leaders on Saturday, BGMEA President Atiqul Islam said the apex body would take all measures to pay salaries to the workers before the Eid-ul-Azha.

"We (the owners and workers) have agreed to accept the government endorsed wage board's decision," he told newsmen.

"The new pay structure will come into effect from the day it is announced," he added.

Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of readymade garment products trailing China. The sector accounts for about 80 percent of the country's export earnings.

It has been plagued with accidents and allegations of poor working conditions and wage structure.

This sector has recently been rocked by violent protests by garment workers demanding their minimum wage be fixed at Tk 8,000.

Agitating workers had been on the streets since the beginning of last week.

Saturday's announcement came as pacification for the workers who toil hard for as little as Tk 3,000 per month.

The government, in May this year, formed a wage board to fix a new salary structure for the RMG workers.

On Aug 18, workers' bodies proposed hiking the wage to Tk 8,114 from Tk 3,000.

The owners proposed hiking minimum salaries to Tk 3,600 triggering a wave of violent protests from RMG workers in places like Dhaka, Gazipur, Ashulia, Narayanganj.

BGMEA President Islam said: "The workers leaders have assured that they would not object to the detention of those responsible for instigating the unrest and would thwart outsiders' intrusion."

None of the workers leaders spoke at Saturday's media briefing.

Workers' representatives in the wage board Sirajul Islam Rony, Nazma Akter, Selim Reza, Bahrane Sultan Bahar, Lima Ferdous, among others, were present at the meeting.

Speaking to bdnews24.com, Nazma said the two parties were divided on many issues but they had agreed to bring back order in the sector.

She hoped the unrest would end after Saturday's meeting.

"But unrest might restart if the wage board salary structure does not comply with the workers' demand," she said.

Low labour cost has attracted popular western brands to Bangladesh but the sector has been susceptible to accidents.

A fire at a garment factory last year and the collapse of a high-rise early this year had killed over 1,200 garment workers. Safety issues had apparently prompted the US to cancel Bangladesh's preferential trade status.

The sector employs an estimated four million workers, most of them women.