Speakers at a discussion in Dhaka on Tuesday emphasised the executing recommended minimum wages for the tannery sector soon.
At a joint consultation meeting, organised by Solidarity Centre-Bangladesh at a city hotel, they urged the government to publish a gazette on the recommended minimum wage of Tk 18001 for the tannery sector.
Members of Tannery Workers Union and Bangladesh Labour Rights Journalists Forum attended the meeting.
They stressed the need for strengthening the social and environmental rights of workers in the tannery sector.
TWU president Abul Kalam Azad, its general secretary Abdul Malek, country programme director of Solidarity-Bangladesh AKM Nassim, BLRJF president Kazi Abdul Hannan, among others, spoke at the event.
The speakers said that after 16 months of formation of the minimum wage board, the recommendation of minimum wage Tk 18001 was placed to labour ministry. But the ministry was delaying to publish the final gazette to implement the minimum wage in the tannery industry.
The discussion highlighted that the tannery workers were leading a miserable life as they were lowly paid due to lack of wage discipline in the industry.
鈥楢fter shifting the tannery industry to Savar, the workers have been struggling,鈥� they said adding that in Hazaribag, the workers got housing in nearby tannery areas, but in Savar tannery, there was no housing facility for them.
They also said that for a sustainable environment in the tannery industry, the immediate implementation of minimum wage was required.