RMG owners urged to pay all arrears before Eid
September 5, 2010
Chairman of National Garments Workers Federation (NGWF) Amirul Huq Amin Saturday urged the garments owners to pay all arrears and bonus to the workers for averting any untoward situation before the Eid.
He also said the owners should discuss about the factory-related problems, if any, with the workers apart from paying their salary.
Textile university in city soon: Nahid
September 5, 2010
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday said Tejgaon Textile College will be turned into a university soon.
He said the bill of the university would be placed in the first week of next session of the parliament, which will start on September 20.
Tax on local garments irks boutiques
September 5, 2010
Customers of local fashion boutique houses pay more than those who buy garments from entirely import-based stores, manufacturers-cum-retailers claim because of the value added tax (VAT).
BGMEA lauds govt decision to revive 270 sick RMG units
August 21, 2010
BGMEA Thursday appreciated the government’s latest decision of reviving 270 sick garment factories to help rehabilitate the units by resuming production.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in a statement said the decision has proved that the government is industry and labour-friendly.
Objections to new RMG wage galore
August 21, 2010
Some 343 garment owners have filed objections before the Minimum Wages Board in a plea to cut salaries of workers in the new pay scale announced recently.
As per the rules, the Minimum Wages Board (MWB) will now call meetings relating to the fixations of wages for around 3.0 million workers.
From RMG workers’ mouths
August 18, 2010
The delayed implementation of the newly announced wages sparked the recent protests by angry garment industry workers, dozens of workers said.
More than three of every four surveyed by The Daily Star said garment workers were the main force behind the protests demanding a hike in minimum wage to Tk 5,000 ($72) from the current Tk 1,662 ($24), fixed in 2006.
The new minimum wage was well below workers’ demand, but the unrest in Tejgaon, Ashulia and Narayanganj after the government set the Tk 3,000 ($43) wage on July 29, could have been largely avoided if it were effective immediately.
Instead, the roughly 80 percent wage hike occurs only on November 1. Garment workers will spend the year’s biggest religious festivals and spending season — Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha — with only a meagre survival wage.
The workers remained mum during negotiations, hoping the increase would come sooner. But when they became sure they would only receive the increased wage three months later, they took to the streets. Dhaka saw a violent demonstration in the early hours of July 30, a day after the wage announcement.
The interviews were with 34 randomly selected workers in Tejgaon and Ashulia industrial neighbourhoods. The Daily Star conducted an open-ended questionnaire in the weeks after the protests.
AVOIDABLE IF NOT DELAYED
Some 73 percent of the workers who were interviewed expressed anger for delayed new wage.
More than 60 percent of workers even said the unrest could have avoided if they were assured of getting the incremental salary before Eid, even though the increased wage is 40 percent below workers’ demand.
“We all hoped to get the increased salary ahead of Eid,” said Doly Akhter Sumi, who works at a garment factory at Tejgaon, Dhaka. “Instead of ensuring the hiked wage before, the government takes time again for three months.”
Some of the anger arose from suspicion that the new pay-scale will not be implemented in November, but will, upon the pleas of owners, be delayed still further.
“I doubt whether this will be implemented by November,” said the 22-year-old worker, who earns nearly Tk 4,500 a month, including overtime, working 8am to 7pm a day.
Labour Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain was surprised by the reaction, however, even though the unions are not freely elected. “No one told me that the movement was because of belated implementation,” he said.
“We did not anticipate that there would be any protest. We thought that workers would accept the new announcement, as we have fixed the new wage on the basis of discussion with owners and workers.”
Workers said the government had given them the impression that they would get the new wages paid, not just set, before Eid. When the real date came, they became frustrated.
“The government had earlier assured us of giving new wage before Ramadan,” said Habibur Rahman, who works at a garment factory in Tejgaon. “But it says the new wage will be effective three months later to please owners.
“Although the new minimum wage is lower than our demand, we would have accepted it if we got hiked salaries immediately,” said the 26-year-old worker, who earns around Tk 4,000 monthly at the current wage.
The minister denied ensuring increased pay before Eid: “Legally, it takes six months for implementation. But we have advanced it by three months for the sake of workers.”
But a top factory owner, on the condition of anonymity, said the government did a poor job of dispelling these worker expectations.
“There was a lack of communication on the part of the negotiators,” he said.
Shippers imposing ECR fee on containers for unwanted delay
August 18, 2010
Jasim Uddin Haroon
back from Chittagong
Performance of Chittagong port has fallen further in July, forcing the shippers to impose ‘emergency cost recovery (ECR)’ fee on containers in addition to the existing congestion surcharges.
Export performance—belated impact of recession?
August 10, 2010
Faruq A Siddiqi
It is good to know that improved export performance in April has helped pull export to a positive zone albeit marginally. Overall export in the first ten months registered a growth of 0.97% over the same period last year. However, it was 8.67% behind the target fixed for the period. It is a matter of greater concern that performance of garment sector, which accounts for more than 75% of our export, still shows a negative growth. Knitwear and woven garment exports are 2.06 and 1.38 percent down over the actual performance of the first ten months of last year. However, improved performance of RMG sector in April and excellent export performance of jute goods, raw jute, petroleum and engineering products have been able to bring the exports figure to the green zone from a negative growth figure of -0.80% at the end of March.
Textile college to be made into university
August 10, 2010
The College of Textile Technology will be made a university.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid made the announcement on Sunday while inaugurating Technical and Vocational Education Week at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. The week is being observed for the first time in the country.
He said that a law will be enacted soon in this regard.
Nahid stressed the importance of technical and vocational education as it provides a livelihood based on learning skills that lead to financial independence.
He said the programme will aim to identify the problems of the sector and make ways to correct them.
The minister ruefully said that the social recognition of technical and vocational education is still very low in the scoiety.
“Parents and guardians believe that working in textiles allows for very little social prestige, but it is possible to improve and increase the level of skilled workers in the sector,” he said.
Nahid asked all including the guardians to change their attitude towards textile education and give it social recognition.
Education secretary Syed Ataur Rahman said that Bangladesh earned about $10 billion last year from remittance sent by expatriate Bangladeshi workers, which is 11 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP.
He said more than half of the expatriate Bangladeshi workers are unskilled.
Textile and technological education is the pathway towards creating more skilled labour, who would be better positioned to earn precious foreign currency and bring multiple benefits for the society, Rahman pointed out.
Director general of the technical education directorate, Nitai Chandra Sutradhar, said that a large part of the population comprises of school dropouts, around 945,000, who can be made skilled workers by giving them vocational training, he said.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was supposed to inaugurate the programme but she was unable to attend due to illness.
At the end of the ceremony, the education minister launched the online application process for diploma courses.
bdnews24.com/jf/sa/su/am/2100h
Sewing up in garments sector
August 10, 2010
IT is quite unfortunate that several thousand garment workers rampaged through different parts of the capital and Gazipur on July 30, rejecting the new wage structure and demanding Tk.5,000 as minimum wage from August. The angry workers vandalised vehicles and around 200 business establishments, including several garment factories, resulting in injury of at least 25 people including five police.