Pandemic delays minimal wage for tea, jute mill workers
The wait for employees of several sectors, including personal jute mills and tea gardens, for latest wages has gotten much longer as the fixation of their bare minimum wages was halted following authorities' unwillingness to join physical meetings amid the pandemic.
The bare minimum wage board under the labour and employment ministry in a notice the other day said it could not perform activities to fix the very least wage for workers in private jute mills, tea gardens, printing press and security services from March 26 to May 30 because of the general holiday.
"Considering the current situation, participants of the board possess expressed disinclination to attend meetings. The dates of meetings will be set and all will come to be informed accordingly after the coronavirus situation increases and normalcy returns," the plank said in the see.
This disclosure comes at the same time when thousands of workers, including practically 150,000 used in private jute mills and 140,000 in tea gardens, are waiting to get new wages.
The bare minimum wage for personnel at the private jute mills is Tk 4,380 monthly with Tk 2,700 being their basic pay -- which is one-third of the minimal wage fixed by the government for employees at state-run mills, including jute.
Meanwhile, tea employees get Tk 102 per day now along with 3,270 grams of rice or perhaps wheat flour, said Rambhajan Kairi, standard secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Personnel Union.
"Workers are living from hand to mouth. We wish the government to have a distinctive initiative to declare bare minimum wages for us," he said.
Kairi, who exactly represents tea personnel on the table, said tea gardens were not shut even for a good day because of the coronavirus.
"Workers will work amid risk of an infection," he said, adding that the issue of fixing the very least wage could possibly be moved onward by positioning virtual meetings while not all members are willing to be there physically amid Covid-19 outbreak.
"Numerous big decisions are getting taken [by the authorities] through digital meetings," explained Kairi, demanding Tk 300 as daily wage for tea personnel.
Shahidullah Kha, who represents jute mill employees in the personal sector on the board, said he is willing to join the meeting of the wage table.
Sheikh Shamsul Abedin, who represents jute mill owners at the board, said several meetings occurred after the declaration last week.
"We are gathering info from many mills regarding wages," he said.
Abedin, also chairman of Rajbari Jute Mills, said workers in many spinning and jute mills are getting higher wages compared to the declared rates of 2013.
"There exists a shortage of jute mill workers. So, owners pay higher to retain them," he said.
"It would be better if the new minimum wage is fixed once normalcy returns," explained Mohammad Zahurul Islam, basic secretary of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh.
Workers and employees in the printing sector get higher than the minimum amount wage fixed in 2011, he added.
Some 500,000 persons used to job in the printing sector prior to the Covid-19 broke out, according to Islam.
Jatiya Sramik League President Fazlul Haque Montu, who represents personnel at the plank, said numerous members, including representatives of owners, are unwilling to attend meetings amid the pass on of the novel virus.
"The office is not spacious enough to make sure proper cultural distancing for all customers during meetings," he said.
On holding digital meetings, Montu said he would raise the issue with the plank chairman.
Kazi Saifuddin Ahmed, labour adviser of the Bangladesh Companies' Federation, said it is not easy for him to be physically present at the meetings. However, Ahmed as well said he would haven't any qualms if meetings will be held virtually.
However, Chairman of the table Khandaker Hasan Md Firoz explained it isn't convenient to carry virtual meetings for the fixation of minimum amount wages.
It may not be possible to get all views and present all the information properly through virtual meetings. Therefore, physical occurrence at meetings is far more convenient, he added.
"We will need the initiative following the upcoming Eid to ensure that we can carry some meetings," said Firoz.
The board recommended bare minimum wages for workers in the plastic industry, re-rolling mills, leather goods and footwear factories and personal transport sector in fiscal 2019-20.
The federal government had declared new minimal wages for staff in the aluminium and enamel, garments, glass and silicate sectors through the previous fiscal year.
