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Food ration for RMG

workers starts Minister pledges fresh wage board

Staff Correspondent
The government will announce a fresh minimum wage board soon to ensure better payment for garment workers, said Labour and Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.
He said the government earlier shelved a previous plan for the new wage board after
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the garment industry had been hurt by tLe global recession.
The minister was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of rice-rationing programme for the garment workers on Shomahar Sweater Factory premises in the city's Tejgaon Industrial area yesterday.
He said wages of the workers did not increase in proportion with the price hike of basic commodities. For this reason, the government is trying to keep prices of those commodities at tolerable level by continuing rice-rationing programme for the workers, he said.
He asked the garment owners to strictly follow the rules of payment stated in the sixth wage board in 2006. "Please do not unnecessarily sack the workers," Hossain suggested the owners.
Speaking on the occasion as special guest. Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque said the government has subsidised foodstuff and fertiliser to save both farmers and consumers.
"The government is giving subsidy ofTk 7.50 for per kg rice to sell to the garment workers,’ the food minister said.
Mukhlesur Rahman, secre-tary to the food and disaster management ministry, said the government has enough stock to continue such rationing programme all the year round at the subsidised rate.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), urged the government to give at least Tk 2,000 crore to the garment sector from the government's stimulus package fund of Tk 5,000
crore for the welfare of workers.
Meanwhile, both the BGMEA and BKMEA started their rice - rationing programme for the workers from yesterday.
Each worker will get five kgs of rice in a week at a rate Tk 16 per kg. Each worker will be able to buy no more than 20 kgs in a month
According to a food ministry press release, around 1.09 lakh workers of 140 factories under BKMEA and around 5.41 lakh workers of 618 factories under BGMEA will initially get the rationed rice. The number of workers will increase gradually.
Initially the government has allocated 2,100 metric tons of rice for the factories listed under BKMEA and 10,800 metric tons for the factories under BGMEA. officials at the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management said.