Bangladesh doubles wages for workers at state-run factories

The government has approved a new wage and allowance structure for workers at state-run factories, doubling their monthly wages.

According to the new structure, state-run factory workers will be paid a minimum wage of Tk 8,300 and a maximum wage of Tk 11,200, up from Tk 4,150 and Tk 5,600 respectively.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday.

The cabinet accepted the ‘Wage Scale and Allowances for Workers in State-Owned Industries’ recommendation from the National Wage and Productivity Commission-2015 at the meeting.

Commissions are formed from time to time to set the wages for workers at state-owned industries, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said at a briefing at the Secretariat after the meeting.

The new wage structure was proposed to bring it in line with the wage scale for public sector workers, he said.

The new wage structure will be implemented retrospectively from July 2015, while the allowance will be implemented from July 2016, the cabinet secretary said.

The National Wage and Productivity Commission headed by former Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan was formed in 2015 to oversee the new wage structure for state-owned industry workers after a corresponding change in the wage structure for other public sector workers.

The commission submitted its recommendations to Hasina last year. It had recommended a minimum wage of Tk 8,300 and a maximum wage of Tk 11,600.

The previous wage scale increase for state-owned factory workers had come under the National Wage and Productivity Commission 2010, which had increased wages by nearly 70 percent.