SUCCESSIVE governments have been generally negligent in ensuring minimum wage and labour rights for workers in export-oriented industries. The apparel workers got some policy attention, and their minimum wage was increased from Tk 8,000 to Tk 12,100 in 2023, but the increase is extremely inadequate considering the unprecedented food inflation in the country. The minimum wage for non-apparel industrial workers, including leather, footwear, shrimp, and pharmaceutical industries, is far lower than what the apparel workers earn and ranges between Tk 6,700鈥�8,050, even when they all equally contribute to the country鈥檚 export earnings. Although the leather and jute industries ranked as the second and third highest export-earning sectors in Bangladesh, workers in these sectors have been economically struggling as their monthly minimum wage consecutively stands at Tk 7,100 and Tk 8,000. In the first five months of the year, tea exports saw a 33 per cent increase, and the government provides a 3 per cent incentive to encourage tea exports, but the workers daily wage is as low as Tk 170, that too after the most recent increase in 2022. This disparity raises serious concerns about fairness and equity in wage distribution across different industries.
Against this backdrop, the demand for a national minimum wage and a permanent wage commission is made by national and international labour rights monitoring bodies. Not only has there been disparity in minimum wage between different export-earning industries, the government and industry owners also almost never review the wage in a timely manner. The national labour law stipulates that the minimum wage be reviewed every five years to adjust with inflationary pressure and other economic factors. Before the wage increase in apparel and tea industries, workers had to take to the streets and call work abstention programmes to initiate the wage review. Formation of a wage board, however, does not end workers鈥� struggles, as the labour ministry has a tendency to appoint a labour leader who is loyal and willing to serve the owner and government interests. The policy level bias towards the industry owners as reflected in the labour law or in the minimum wage negotiation is because the national parliament has been dominated by industry owners. In the past decades, lawmakers have been directly or indirectly linked with the export-earning industries and worked to serve their business interests; ensuring workers鈥� wages and wellbeing were not their policy priorities.
The interim government that assumed office following the fall of the authoritarian Awami League regime and expressed interest in democratic reform should seriously consider the issue of wage discrimination within export oriented industries. In what follows, the government should consider forming a national wage commission to review the existing wage structure in the formal and informal sectors and take a stand against the poverty wage structure, which has been the norm in Bangladesh.