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Many small RMG owners fail to execute minimum wage

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
A year and a half after the publication of the new minimum wage for garment workers labour leaders claim many of the small producers are still failing to honour the agree- , ment
However, among the larger factories mostly members of the trade bodies have implemented the minimum wage recommendations for their workers.
The government published the gazette notification in connection with the implementation of minimum wages for garment workers at Tk 1662.50 a month on October 22,2006.
Talking to The Daily Star, Nazma Akter, president of the Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation and a member of the Minimum Wage Implementation Committee, said more than 75 percent garment owners have already implemented the minimum wage structure.
“Most of the members of both BGMEA, BKMEA and BGMEA have implemented the minimum wage. Many garment owners who are not members of the BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMA did not implement the salary struc-ture at their factories yet,” Nazma said.
She said she filed at least 4 cases against the garment owners with the labour court for non-implementation of the minimum wage structure at their factories. Now, only one case is pending in the court, she added.
In this context she pointed to the fact that the current minimum wage is too small to maintain a family of an RMG worker as the prices of essential commodities have gone up abnormally.
Until yesterday, members of the BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMA ensured 98 percent minimum wage for their factory workers since the publication of the gazette notification by the government.
In particular, the woven sector implemented minimum wage structure at 99.1 percent, while the knitwear sector implemented it 97 percent, the BGMEA and BKMEA officials said.
The government published the gazette notification after a long negotiation with the factory owners, workers and workers' leaders following a massive labour unrest in the garment sector that erupted from May 22,2006. Mubarak Hossain, a worker in an export-oriented garment factory at the city's Mirpur, said his employer has implemented the minimum wages within one month after the announcement. “But the wage is too poor to cope with the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities,” he said.
When asked, President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Hoque said they have already implemented the minimum wage structure at their factories, as it is a major factor for running the business.
“We are not receiving complaints from workers. So, I think the problem has already been solved," he said.
On review of the current wage in the wake of higher prices of essentials, Hoque urged the government to introduce rationing system for workers and asked buyers for better prices for their products.
"Although the prices of almost all the raw materials for producing garment items rose across the world, the prices of garment items did not increase," he said.
ree1at@lhedallystar.net