Amid clashes and violence during garment workers’ protests demanding higher wages, labour leaders have urged the government to make a quick decision, while the government has asked them to keep the protests peaceful.
Despite almost daily clashes, the minimum wage board formed to determine workers’ pay has not held a meeting in three days. Nor is there any indication of when its first meeting will take place.
The board chairman said the first meeting was held one and a half months after the board was formed the last time wages were determined.
Against this backdrop, Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Labour and Employment, met leaders of several labour organisations in Dhaka on Tuesday as a government representative.
The leaders told him that the new minimum wage should be announced by December.
They also want to speak with labour organisation leaders in Savar, Narayanganj and Gazipur to help bring the situation under control.
However, they said police cases against local leaders had complicated matters, leaving many regional labour leaders unable to stay in their localities.
Shimul Biswas urged the leaders to keep protests peaceful and ensure that no third party uses the movement to serve other interests.
The meeting was attended by Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal President Anwar Hossain, Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation General Secretary Babul Akhter, IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC) President Abul Kalam Azad and General Secretary Salauddin Swapan, along with the presidents and general secretaries of several other labour organisations.
Anwar Hossain and Babul Akhter are listed as workers’ representatives on the minimum wage board.
Labour leaders want to visit different areas, speak to ordinary workers and help manage the situation, remarked Abul Kalam Azad.
Stressing the need for a flexible approach from the police in arresting regional leaders, he told TIMES, “We have said that all the work of the wage board should be completed by December and want workers to receive their new wages from January.”
The last minimum wage for the garment sector was announced in December 2023 at Tk12,500.
Under the labour law at the time, a new wage board was to be formed every five years. The law was later amended, reducing the interval to three years.
Under the revised arrangement, a new minimum wage is due by the end of this year.
Workers began staging protests and blocking roads in Uttara in mid-October.
Over the past four days, the protests turned violent, spreading to Mirpur, Savar, Ashulia and Hemayetpur in Dhaka, as well as several areas of Gazipur and Narayanganj.
The government has alleged that activists of the Awami League, which was ousted from power in the mass uprising, are exploiting the situation to engage in violence.
It has accused party leaders of inciting and financing the unrest, alleging that factory owners sympathetic to the party are also instigating the protests.
Cases have also been reported against labour leaders in different areas.
Smriti Akter, secretary of the Garment Workers Federation in Gazipur, told TIMES that a case was filed against her, accusing her of financing and instigating the unrest.
She said, “I have been working in this sector since 1994. During the movement under the Awami League government, it was said that the BNP and Jamaat were involved. Now it is being said that the Awami League is involved. But I do not belong to the Awami League. My entire family is associated with the BNP.”
The meeting between Shimul Biswas and mainly pro-government labour leaders took place as workers staged road blockades and protests for the fourth consecutive day.
The leaders raised concerns about mass arrests and the use of workers as political tools.
Shimul Biswas told TIMES, “Everything the government has done for garment workers so far has been positive. The same thing was discussed at today’s meeting.”
Claiming that labour organisations shared the government’s view that a third party was instigating the protests, he observed, “We have urged them to ensure that everything remains peaceful. This country, the garment industry belong to us and we must try to protect them.”
When will the wage board meet?
Although clashes and violence have disrupted production in the garment sector, the country’s main source of foreign currency earnings, the minimum wage board has not met in three days. The government has said the board will begin work soon but has not said when its first meeting will take place.
TIMES spoke to three board members, who did not have a specific reason as to why the meeting was not held, saying the decision to call a meeting rests with the chairman.
Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, a professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka and an independent board member, said he will take part in the meeting.
What the workers are doing is harmful to both the country and the garment industry, added Asif Ayub, the employers’ representative on the board.
Slamming the delay, IBC General Secretary Salauddin Swapan told TIMES, “We cannot understand why the board has still not been able to hold even one meeting. Given the situation that has developed, it should have met on the very first day after it was formed.”
Saying that in 2023, the first meeting was held 45 days after the minimum wage board was formed, Sheikh Ashfakur Rahman, said in a reassuring tone, “Our meeting will take place very soon.”
