Six-Member Wage Board Formed — How Long Might a New Garment Wage Take?

Facing workers' protests, the government has hastily formed a minimum wage board for the export-oriented readymade garment industry. The board will hold discussions and send a draft wage structure to the labour ministry. Once the ministry finalises it and issues a gazette notification, garment workers will receive the increased wages accordingly.

On Sunday, through two separate notifications, the labour ministry reconstituted the minimum wage board and appointed owner and worker representatives for the garment industry's wage board. Senior district and sessions judge Sheikh Ashfakur Rahman, chairman of the minimum wage board, will head the six-member board. One notification appointed Bangladesh Employers' Federation joint secretary general Asif Ayub and Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal president Anwar Hossain as the permanent members for the owners' and workers' sides respectively. Dhaka University public administration professor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed was made the board's neutral member.

Another notification appointed BGMEA director A B M Shamsuddin as the member representing the owners on the garment industry's wage board, and Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF) general secretary Babul Akhtar as the member representing the workers.

The notifications give no instruction on how quickly the wage talks must be concluded. However, under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, once the government directs a wage review for an industry, the board is required to recommend a new wage structure within six months — although the time can be extended at the board's request.

After a wage board is formed, its chairman convenes a meeting and asks the worker and owner representatives to submit wage proposals. Once the proposals are in, board members discuss them. At times, board members visit one or more industrial areas if they consider it necessary. The draft of the new wage structure is finalised on the basis of consensus in the board's discussions. Objections or recommendations are then taken on that draft, after which the minimum wage board sends the final draft to the ministry.

The last minimum wage board for the garment industry was formed in 2023. The wage structure was legally required to take effect on December 1 that year. The 2023 wage board held six meetings and, in the first week of November that year, recommended a minimum wage of 12,500 taka. The government then issued the final gazette notification in December.

An analysis of the labour law and the previous wage board's work shows the newly formed board is obliged to complete its work by April next year. After taking office, the current government amended the labour law to reduce the wage-review cycle for workers from five years to three years.

Garment workers' latest minimum wage took effect in December 2023. There had been differing views between workers and owners on whether the three-year period should be counted from after the labour law amendment or from before. In the face of the workers' movement, however, that difference of opinion did not hold.

Salahuddin Swapan, general secretary of the workers' organisation IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, said that to make a new wage structure effective this December, the wage board should have been formed back in May. As that did not happen, a sense of unease grew among workers. Even though the board's formation was delayed, he believes it is possible to finalise the new wage structure within the next month.

Asked about the matter, Mohammad Hatem, president of BKMEA, the knitwear owners' association, said: "How the new wage structure will be set is clearly stated in the law and rules. So when the new wage structure comes is the board's decision. But we must be given time to implement it. Under the law, our plan was to implement a new wage structure after two more years. However, it is true that because of rising commodity prices, workers are struggling to run their lives. At the same time, time is also needed considering the industry's capacity and bargaining with the owners."

The government first formed a minimum wage board for garment workers in 1994. That board set a minimum wage of 930 taka. In 2006 it was raised to 1,662 taka 50 paisa. The 2010 wage board set workers' minimum wage at 3,000 taka, and the 2013 board set it at 5,300 taka. Most recently, the 2018 wage board finalised a minimum wage of 8,000 taka for garment workers, of which the basic wage was 4,100 taka.

Labour leader Nazma Akhtar, president of the Sammilito Garments Sramik Federation, said: "The government was late in forming the wage board. That is why a section of workers took to the streets. Now our demand is that the new wage structure be finalised through discussion as quickly as possible."