The fifth meeting of the Minimum Wages Board for the apparel industry ended inconclusive on Monday as the factory owners proposed wages much lower than what the workers demanded.
The workers proposed raising the minimum wage for entry point workers to Tk6200 from Tk1662.50 a month, while the owners offered Tk1887.25, a board member told New Age after the meeting.
The fourth meeting of the board on May 17 had also ended inconclusive.

Associations, representing the workers, have been pressing for raising the minimum to at least Tk 5,000, a month, considering the increased cost of living increased since 2006, when the workers got their last raise.
A board member, representing the workers, said that the six-member board had asked both the sides to minimise the gap between the two proposals.
The board chairman Ikteder Ahmed, asked the representatives of both the sides to place revised proposals at the next meeting, scheduled for May 30, said a member.

BGMEA vice-president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, who represents the factory owners in the board, told the meeting that the employers would not be able to increase the minimum wage beyond Tk1887.25.
But the workers’ representative, Shamsunnahar Bhuiyan, said that the minimum wage for the entry point workers in the apparel industry should be raised to at least Tk6200, said sources.
At its third meeting on May 9, the representatives of the workers and the owners were asked to submit separate proposals to refix the minimum wage for the apparel workers.

The apparel workers in Bangladesh are the lowest paid in the world. They are also the lowest paid industrial workers in the country.
The labour and employment ministry on January 14 instructed the Minimum Wages Board to start its work to revise the wages of apparel workers taking inflation and soaring prices into consideration.

-The New Age