Wage rise hope for Bangladeshi garment factory workers

BANGLADESH’S garment factory owners are pencilling in a minimum wage increase of 50 to 80 per cent and will ask retailers to pay more to defray the cost, as the government tries to end a wave of strikes that hit nearly a fifth of workshops last month.
By The Newsroom
Published 22nd Oct 2013, 10:16 BST

The world’s second largest clothing exporter hopes to announce a new minimum wage early next month, bowing to international pressure after a string of fatal factory accidents that thrust poor working conditions and pay into the spotlight.

Workers want the minimum wage, which was last raised in 2010, to go up to 8,000 taka (£63) a month – two and a half times the current rate.

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Factory bosses have formally offered 3,600 taka (£28). Several, however, told Reuters they anticipated that Bangladesh’s official wage board would set rates in the 4,500 to 5,500 taka (£36 to £44) range and they intended to seek between five and 15 per cent in price hikes from retailers.

The wage board was due to meet yesterday before submitting a draft proposal to the government.

“These workers’ rights are being discussed all over the world now and the government is nervous,” said Amirul Haque Amin, the head of the National Garment Workers Federation, an umbrella group representing 37 unions.

“There is this pressure now. This has given us the opportunity to raise our voices.”

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The wage negotiations must somehow strike a balance between Western fashion giants, politically-connected factory owners and protesting staff.

The government did not respond to strikes over wages last year, but since then accidents including the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex near Dhaka, which killed more than 1,100 garment workers, have put the authorities on the back foot.

Rock bottom wages and trade deals with Western countries have propelled Bangladesh’s garments sector to a $22bn (£13.6bn) industry accounting for four-fifths of the country’s exports, with retailers such as Wal-Mart, JC Penney and H&M buying clothes from its factories.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said the retailer “continues to work with other stakeholders in encouraging the Bangladesh government to review minimum wages for workers in the garment industry to ensure worker needs are met”.

H&M said it had urged Bangladesh to raise the minimum wage and revise it annually.

Related topics:WorkersWestern