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Workers in Bangladesh's main export-earning garment industry finally get a 9.0-percent annual wage hike from the existing 5.0 per cent, following waves of labour unrest.
Garment workers will get the enhanced wages from January, Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) adviser of the interim government M Sakhawat Hussain made the announcement at a press briefing after a meeting held at his secretariat office in Dhaka.
The annual-increment hike comes to 4.0 per cent, as agreed at the tripartite meeting, amid labour unrest in the country's apparel sector.
Thousands of workers from at least half a dozen units in Ashulia industrial belt observed work abstention Tuesday on their respective factory premises or in front of the gates to demand 15-percent annual increment and Tk 25,000 as monthly pay.
The fifth meeting of the committee on 'minimum wage review and annual increment for the RMG sector', led by MoLE additional secretary Md Sabur Hossain, was also attended by other members, including factory owners and workers' representatives.
Sources said owners' representatives at the meeting proposed an 8.0- percent annual increment while the labour side further revised their claim to 10 per cent.
As they failed to come to a consensus during the meeting lasting more than five hours, the committee chief, MoLE Additional secretary Sabur Hossain, later proposed a hike by 4.0 per cent to raise the annual increment to 9.0 per cent.
Both the representatives of owners and workers agreed and signed in the agreement.
Factory owners at the fourth meeting for the same agreed a 7.0-percent annual increment in a move up from their previously-proposed 6.0 per cent, they said.