New wage board for RMG workers to be formed by Sunday: Labour minister

The government will initiate the formation of a new minimum wage board for readymade garment (RMG) workers on Sunday, Labour Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury has said.

The announcement came on Friday after a three-hour meeting between the minister and garment labour leaders at his residence, where they discussed workers’ wage demands, outstanding salaries and the laying off of workers.

“Inshallah, the process of forming the minimum wage board for garment workers will begin on Sunday morning,” the minister told reporters after the meeting, describing the discussions as fruitful.

He also urged workers to remain patient, saying discussions on their wage demands were ongoing.

The announcement comes amid renewed unrest in the garment sector following incidents of factory vandalism on Thursday.

The labour minister, however, suggested that outsiders, rather than garment workers, were responsible for the vandalism. He referred to videos circulating on social media that allegedly showed outsiders instigating the violence.

He expressed confidence that workers would recognise the government's sincerity once the new wage board was formed.

Babul Akter, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), who attended the meeting, told Daily Waadaa that the meeting had raised hopes for the formation of the wage board by Sunday.

“We are hopeful that the wage board will be formed by Sunday. The names of representatives from both the employers’ and workers’ sides will be finalised and sent to the Minimum Wage Board on Sunday. The new wage board will be formed and an official gazette notification issued on the same day,” he said.

Labour representatives from different trade unions attended the meeting.