Workers’ minimum wage to be reviewed

In an effort to bring normalcy back to the industries, the government will review the workers’ wage through the minimum wage board, the interim government has decided.
A new government is in power and the door will be open for discussion on wage review for the workers through the minimum wage board, said AHM Shafiquzzaman, secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, after a meeting at the ministry attended by seven advisers.
Tripartite consultation meetings involving the government, factory owners and labour unions will be called to discuss the wage, the secretary told The Daily Star.
Although the current minimum wage came into effect in December last year, the interim government will review the minimum wage, considering the inflation and rising prices of essentials, officials said.
At yesterday’s meeting chaired by Labour Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan, the government also decided to take measures to make sure workers are paid their salary in arrears soon and to improve communication between workers and officials of the ministry and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments.
The meeting also decided on updating and reforming the tripartite committees and making the labour related complaint committees functional soon and to hold hearings on the complaints.
Labour unrest will be addressed as soon as possible through measures based on the information collected on a daily basis.
Advisers to the interim government also decided to pay the workers of Beximco by lending the company as soon as possible.
So far, a loan of Tk 70 crore has been given to Beximco so that it can pay the workers, Shafiquzzaman said.
The secretary will visit some industrial areas like Tongi today to talk to workers and union leaders.
Khandoker Rafiqul Islam, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said some 60 out of 400 garment factories were shut yesterday in Ashulia because of labour unrest.
The BGMEA held a meeting with workers’ representatives and local influential people in the Ashulia area yesterday to convince the workers to return to work and call off the strike, Rafiqul said.
At the labour ministry meeting, the advisers discussed the latest spell of labour unrest that affected the production in garments and pharmaceutical factories.
Advisers said a certain quarter have been instigating the workers with several illogical demands to spread panic among the owners and workers.
Some 200 factories stopped production because of the deterioration of the law and order situation, according to the working paper of the meeting.
Some factories also laid off their workers amid the crisis.