Over 400 RMG units yet to fix minimum wage as deadline ends
Staff Correspondent
More than 400 garment units are yet to fix minimum monthly wage for their workers though the time limit for it ended yesterday, a survey of the garment manufacturers and exporters association has found.The government last year fixed the minimum wage at Tk 1662.50 during a tripartite deal involving the government, the owners and the workers. After the agreement, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in May this year identified 1,197 out of 4,600 garment factories, which were not paying the minimum wages. The BGMEA then revisited the factories last month and found 757 out of the 1,197 factories fixed minimum wages for the workers as per the deal. Among the rest units, 419 units did not comply with the agreement and the other 21 factories were closed down last month, the study found. "The units will implement the new pay scale from this month," hoped BGMEA President Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez. He said the BGMEA would start monitoring this week whether the units introduce the new pay scale. "We will issue show cause notices against the factories which will not implement the minimum wages by this time," said the BGMEA president. Parvez also urged the factory owners to implement the wage board immediately as he said there is no alternative of introducing the new wages. Different workers' unions, however, expressed their discontent yesterday, as all the garment units did not implement the new pay scale. They also urged the government to take action against the factory owners who are yet to implement the minimum wages.
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