The Time Magazine on 14 November ran a Reuters feature on Bangladesh garment workers’ demand on higher pay, featuring comments from Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Additional Research Director, CPD.
Asia | Time World
Bangladesh Garment Workers Demand Higher Pay
The higher minimum wage is still the lowest for garment workers in the world
By Noah Rayman Nov. 14, 2013
Bangladeshi garment factory owners said Thursday that they had agreed to boost workers’ minimum wage to $68 a month, but protesters took to the streets demanding more.
The minimum wage, up from $38, is still the lowest for garment workers in the world, a researcher at the Centre for Policy Dialogue told Reuters.
Workers, demanding an increase to $100 a month, blocked roads and attacked factories in the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, leading police to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 50 people were wounded, and about 200 factories were closed Thursday.
The factory owners agreed to the official wage board’s proposed $68 after meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, amid intense local and international pressure to improve conditions for workers in the country’s $22 billion garment export company. In April, a factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,130 people.
Read the full article (reblogged from The Reuters)
Bangladesh factories agree to pay rise, but protests go on
BY RUMA PAUL
DHAKA Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:17am EST
(Reuters) – Bangladeshi garment factory owners said on Thursday they had agreed to a proposed 77 percent rise in the minimum wage, but police used teargas and rubber bullets to break up new protests by stone-throwing workers calling for a bigger increase.
Bangladesh’s official wage board had proposed the rise to $68 a month as the minimum wage, up from $38, after a string of fatal factory accidents this year thrust poor pay and conditions into the international spotlight.
The factory owners agreed to the proposal at a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday night after several days of violent protests by workers.
“We have agreed to the new wages after the prime minister assured us she would look into our problems,” said Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association.
He said the new wage, to be officially approved by the wage board, would be effective from next month.
“In the greater interest of our garment sector, we agreed to it. But many small factories cannot afford the rise,” Islam told Reuters.
Workers demanding a $100 a month took to the streets, blocking major roads and attacking factories in the Ashulia industrial belt, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka.
Police used water cannon, fired rubber bullets and lobbed teargas to disperse the stone-throwing demonstrators, witnesses said. More than 50 people, including police, were wounded.
“We will continue protesting until we realize our demand,” a protester said.
STILL LOWEST
The new wage would still be the lowest for garment workers in the world, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, a research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue think-tank.
Violent protests over the pay rise have forced the closure of more than 100 factories this week. About 200 were shut on Thursday.
Labour Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju urged workers to go back to work. He said continuing unrest could threaten livelihoods and warned of action against trouble-makers.
“We are working to ensure decent pay for garment workers,” he told reporters after a meeting trade unions. “Culprits who are trying to destroy the industry won’t be spared.”The new wage would still be the lowest for garment workers in the world, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, a research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue think-tank.
The protests have coincided with violent anti-government protests and strikes led by the main opposition party demanding next year’s elections take place under a non-partisan government.
The impasse between the ruling party and opposition over election rules is a fresh threat to Bangladesh’s $22 billion garment export industry, the economic lifeblood of the impoverished country of 160 million, employing about 4 million people, most of them women.
The garment industry, which supplies many Western brands such as Wal-Mart, JC Penney and H&M, has already been under the spotlight after the accidents, including the collapse of a building housing factories in April that killed more than 1,130 people.
Rock-bottom wages and trade deals with Western countries have helped make Bangladesh the world’s second-largest apparel exporter after China, with 60 percent of its clothes going to Europe and 23 percent to the United States.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Nick Macfie and Robert Birsel)