Workers at risk of losing jobs after wage hike [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Workers at risk of losing jobs after wage hike

Local May 01, 2019

Murad Soyeb, once a worker of an apparel factory at Hemayetpur, Savar now sells potato, onion and vegetables door to door.
He is often seen pushing his van at Hemayetpur bus stand when many of his former colleagues go to factories in the morning.
A senior operator at Babylon Casualwear Ltd, a concern of Babylon Group, Murad was dreaming a better future after wage hike.
But he was sacked and became the vendor half a km from the factory where he used to work.
‘I was forced to resign as the factory set double production target which I could not meet,’ said Murad.
He said, ‘Earlier I had to stich 80 to 100 apparels per day but after the wage hike I was asked to stich 180 apparels which I found quite impossible to do.’
On April 8, Murad, was forced to resign after repeated scolding, deduction of attendance allowance and other punitive measures.
Colleagues echoed Murad’s feelings saying higher production targets and extra working compelled many of them to resign while some fell sick.
Labour leaders said that the wage hike increased job insecurity for workers in Bangladesh’s export oriented apparel industry.
Transparency International Bangladesh in a recent study found that after the wage hike production target was increased by 30 to 36 per cent.
If the workers cannot meet the production target they are forced to work extra hours without paying overtime, assaulted by management and even now allowed to go to the toilets, says the study report released on April 23.
The study was conducted in 80 factories at Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Dhaka from May 2018 to April 2019.
IndustryAll Bangladesh Council, a platform of 13 trade union federations, secretary general Salahuddin Shapon said that around 12,000 workers were terminated during the movement for wage hike in December and January.
He said that after implementation of the new wage structure about 10,000 more workers were fired.
Apparel workers now work under constant fear of losing jobs although their wages were not increased as they had expected, labour leaders said.
Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation president Babul Akhter said that after the wage hike factory owners increased production targets, began sacking, demanded incentives from the government, increased the export prices and introduced new technologies.
TIB researcher Nazmul Huda Mina said that apparel workers’ wage in Bangladesh has in real terms decreased by 26 per cent although the factory owners claim that they had increased the wages by 23 per cent.
Still garment workers minimum wage in Bangladesh is the lowest compared to in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and India.
About 4,000 apparel factories in Bangladesh employ about four million workers, mostly women.
Bangladesh is the world’s 2nd highest apparel exporter, mostly to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Canada.
Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre executive president Kazi Ruhul Amin said that the factory owners fired many senior workers only to deprive them of service benefits.
He said that at least 78 workers of Top Jeans Ltd at Uttar Khan in Dhaka were fired.
Department of inspection for factories and establishments joint inspector general Md. Shamsul Alam Khan said that they received many allegations against the owners in recent months.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president SM Mannan Kochi told New Age that the many owners couldn’t run their factories due to increased operational costs.
He demanded increased cash incentives from the government to save the apparel industry.
The labour-intensive apparel sector annually earns around $31 billion and gets tax cuts.
According to a report, prepared by the Policy Research Institute, export-oriented industries enjoyed tax exemption of Tk 34,880 crore on the import of raw materials in the 2016-2017 financial year under the bonded warehouse facility.
Of the amount, the apparel sector alone enjoyed Tk 33,612 crore in duty cuts against the import of inputs such as fabrics, yarn and accessories worth Tk 47,795 crore, as per the report published in December 2017.