Published on BSS Online on Tuesday, 3 June 2014.
Female garment workers victims of wage disparity
BSS
Jaya has been working as a helper in a garment factory in the city’s Kawran Bazar area for a monthly salary of Taka 3,000.
Including overtime, medical and other facilities, she can draw Taka 4,000 to 4,500 per month. Her husband Meghnad Sikder has also been working in a garment factory. Both Jaya and her husband are living in a slum-like rented house beside Kathalbagan Mosque in the capital Dhaka.
When asked whether she is getting wage under the new wage structure announced by the government in December last year, a visibly disappointed Jaya replied in the negative.
She in her local accent said, “Ki bhabey notun beton dibe. puran beton e dei na” (How shall we get wage under new structure since the owner is not paying us under old wage structure).
“Failing to get wages under the new structure, many female workers have quit their job,” Jaya said, adding that the garment owners do not pay heed to their repeated demands in this regard although many machine operators sometimes stay away from their work to press home their demands for introducing new wage structure in the garment factory.
“We work in the factory from 8 am to 7 pm and the hours after 5 pm are counted as overtime. After such hard work we are not paid overtime bill even salary timely. We did not get our salaries of the last three months. We have come to Dhaka to earn money and run our family smoothly through our earnings. But unfortunately, our dream has been shattered,” an apparently frustrated Jaya said.
Jaya went on, “We have family and we need food to survive and a shelter to live in. So, if we don’t get salary in time how would we run our family and meet other necessary expenses?”
The rent of Jaya’s house, where she has been living with her husband and mother -in-law, is Taka 4,500. Four families comprising 16 members are living in four rooms of the rented house. They have four gas burners.
Four families have to use one single burner, one common bathroom and two toilets. On the other hand, scarcity of drinking water is acute in the house. Jaya has to collect water in the early hours from the supply tap and keep water in pitchers for whole-day use.
Shila has been working in the garment factory as an operator for the last six months. She used to work in another garment factory at least six years before joining the present factory. She quit the previous job, as the owner did not pay her salary consecutively for three months.
Shila has been living in a rented room with her sister, also a garment worker, near Kathalbagan Bazar. She comes to her house from Kawran Bazar to take lunch. On her way home, she buys some vegetables and fish from Kathalbagan Bazar for their next- day meals.
“We are passing very hard time as we have to work from 8 am to 5 pm with a half -an-hour lunch break. If we can enter the office before 8 am, we get a bonus of Taka 200 and if we fail to do so we do not get it (bonus),” said Shila.
According to new structure, Shila said the wage of a senior sewing machine operator of Grade-3 has been fixed at Taka 6,805 while Taka 6,420 for a Grade-4 operator, Taka 6,042 for a junior operator of Grade-5, Taka 5,678 for a general operator of Grade-6 and Taka 5,300 for a helper.
But, unfortunately, the female workers are deprived of salary under wage structure in almost every industry although the male operators get it (salary) as per the wage structure, she said. “If we protest the disparity between male and female workers, there is a chance of losing job,” Shila added.
Meanwhile, the government on December 5 last year announced the new wage structure for the workers and employees of garment factories of the country.
According to the new structure, the total salary for a Grade- 1 employee has been fixed at Taka 13,000 while Taka 10,900 for a Grade-2 worker, Taka 6,805 for Grade-3, Taka 6,420 for Grade-4, Taka 6,042 for Grade-5, Taka 5,678 for Grade- 6, and Taka 5,300 for Grade-7.
On the other hand, allowances for apprentice worker have been fixed at Taka 4,180. According to a survey of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), nearly 40 percent garment factories in Dhaka city are failing to pay a new minimum wage.
The association surveyed the $20 billion industry, the world’s second largest and a mainstay of the Bangladesh economy, in January this year to determine which of the 4,500 factories were paying the new legally required wage.
The survey was carried out on 594 factories in Dhaka and on its outskirts and found that only 62 percent paid their workers under the newly hiked wages. But in Chittagong, only five per cent factories could (afford to) pay the new minimum wage, the survey revealed.
Shirin Akhter, president of “Karmajibi Nari”, an association working for establishing the rights of female workers in garment industry, said the authorities should identify the problems that crop up regarding implementation of new wage structure in the garment industry and take immediate steps to solve those.
They (authorities) should remove the disparity of wages between male and female workers. Otherwise, the female workers would be compelled to go to court to establish their rights, she added.
Khandakar Golam Moazzem, additional research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), opined for constituting a committee comprising representatives from the government, garment owner and worker bodies to review the matter whether the new wage structure has been implemented in the garment industries across the country.
BGMEA Vice-President Mohammad Shahid Ullah Azim claimed that at least 87 percent factories have implemented the new wage structure. Regarding male- female disparity in terms of salary, he said he had no such information in this regard.
The garment industry has flourished in the country over the last couple of years and now it has emerged as the single largest export earning industry where millions of workers, most of them are female, are working.
Their (workers) hard work has made it possible to earn huge foreign exchange by exporting garment products to different countries across the world. So, the concerned authorities should think about the welfare of its workers mainly the female workers, the major working force in the country’s garment factories.
The authorities should also be remaining aware so that none of the female workers fall victim to wage disparity with their male counterparts because it could frustrate the woman workers which might hinder production.