The government has initiated the formation of a new wage board to determine minimum wages for workers across different sectors.
Abdur Rahman Tarafder, secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, said a gazette notification for this four-member board will be issued soon, in accordance with the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006.
On Sunday, he told bdnews24.com: “On Oct 15, we sent letters requesting nominations from the Bangladesh Employers' Federation (BEF) for an employer representative, and from workers' organisations for a worker representative. As of [Sunday], we have not received any names.
"We will constitute the board as soon as we receive the names.”
Raisa Afroz, member secretary of the Minimum wage board, told bdnews24.com: “Under Section 138 of the Labour Act, the minimum wage board is to consist of a chairman, an independent member, an employer representative, and a worker representative. These four individuals will form the core, permanent membership of the board.
“For meetings concerning specific sectors, such as the readymade garment industry, an additional employer representative and a worker representative from that particular sector will be included.”
Currently, Senior District Judge Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman serves as the chairman of the minimum wage board.
Section 139 of the Labour Act stipulates that the government may consider determining the minimum wage for workers in any industry upon the application of the employers, the workers, or both parties.
When determining the minimum wage for a specific industry, representatives of both the employers and the workers in that sector work in conjunction with the board.
Different labour organisations have been demanding that the minimum wage for workers be set in alignment with the government pay scale.
Garment workers blocked roads in Dhaka’s Uttara, demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000, citing high prices of essential commodities.
BEF President Fazle Shamim Ehsan told bdnews24.com on Monday that the Federation had submitted the names of three employer representatives for the garment industry’s wage board, as well as the names of permanent representatives for all other industries.
All three worker representatives are BNP leaders.
The Department of Labour sent a letter to the president of the Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal requesting the submission of names for worker representatives to serve on the upcoming wage board.
This year, the labour law was amended to reduce the interval for revising the minimum wage for workers from five years to three years.
The most recent minimum wage for garment workers was announced in November 2023 and came into effect the following month.
Consequently, the current minimum wage structure for the garment sector is set to expire next month.
In 2023, the minimum wage for the garment sector was increased from Tk 8,000 to Tk 12,500, an increase of 56.25 percent. Under that wage structure, the number of pay grades was also reduced from seven to five.