A comparative survey reveals that of the seven Ready Made Garment (RMG) producing countries, the wages of workers in Bangladesh are the lowest. Reportedly, due to low salary, many workers are forced to cut off one meal from their daily food intake.
However, factory owners are not willing to accept this and they say that due to unskilled workers, extra time is required which results in low income.
The seven countries are: Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) claims that in the new salary structure, wages have gone down by 26 percent.
A survey by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) states that there are 3596 garment factories in Bangladesh where 3.5 million people are working.
Of this, 60.8 are women and the rest are men.
As per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) in the 2017-18 fiscal year, the contribution of Bangladesh to the RMG industry is $30.61 billion, which is 83.49 percent of total export.
A worker says that with overtime, she gets Tk 12,000 but has to remain in debt all the time.
Oxfam report says that for proper living, wages should be $252 whereas a worker often gets $50.
In Bangladesh, the lowest wage is $101 against Cambodia’s $197.
In 2013, the wages of grade-1 workers was Tk 8,500 which went up to Tk 10,938. However, if 5 percent increment had been taken into account this would have been Tk 13,243.
Former president of BGMEA, Siddikur Rahman refutes the claim and says, “We are in a better position now; we have less skill and need three times the time compared to China to produce something.”
Garment worker and leader Jolly Talukdar, observes, “Buyers give work since labour cost is low; both local and foreign owners want high profit and their main target is to get the most out of a worker at the lowest rate.”
In export, Bangladesh stands second but countries which are lower than Bangladesh in export earnings pay more, she deplored.