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EUROPEAN GSP

Fair wages to help retain trade privileges

EU envoy speaks at dialogue on Rana Plaza tragedy

Star Business Report
Bangladesh must ensure fair wages and labour rights for garment workers to safeguard duty-free access for its textile exports to Europe in the coming days, William Hanna, head ofEU delegation to Bangladesh, said yesterday.
Europeans are closely watching the labour rights situation in Bangladesh, he said. "The European citizens will never accept the ruthless exploitation of workers. The exploitation has to be stopped.”
Hanna's comment came at a dialogue on the Rana Plaza tragedy, co-organised by the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), ActionAid and Dhaka University Economics Department Alumni Association at the LGED auditorium in the capital.
Fair wages to help retain trade privileges
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Bangladesh must ensure workers' right to association, collective bargaining, occupational safety and fair wages if the country wants to retain the generalised system of preferences (GSP) for garment exports to European markets, Hanna said.
The EU may think of cancelling the "Everything But Arms" scheme, if Bangladesh fails to make sufficient progress in labour rights and safety standards, he said.
Wages for garment workers are nowhere near the amount needed even for basic living, said Roy Ramesh Chandra, general secretary of IndustriAll Bangladesh Council.
“Even to be in line with the millennium development goals, a person must earn above $ 120 a month to be able to remain above the poverty line,” news agency UNB quoted Ramesh as saying.
The poor leadership of garment factory owners is the main reason for the recent labour unrest over a wage hike, Ramesh said.
The wages of the RMG workers are not increasing in tandem with the increase in production and export earnings in the sector, said Prof MATaslim, chairman of the economics department of Dhaka University.
Garment production increased three-fold since 2006-07, but the labour force did not increase accordingly, which indicates the wage rate is not increasing as per productivity, he said.
Export earnings from the sector stood at $8 billion in 2005-06, which hit $21.5 billion in 2012-13, he said.
Given the higher increase in export earnings compared to the number of labour force since 2006-07, the employers cannot deny the increase in profit in this time, Taslim said.
Problems of the garment sector will not be solved if the workers are used in political activities, said Asif Ibrahim, a former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
PPRC has developed a database of 1,168 workers, including dead and injured ones, said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of PPRC.
At the beginning of the event, 16 families of the dead and injured workers of Rana Plaza collapse were promised jobs and financial aid.
With details from UNB