The daily wage of tea estate workers has been raised to Tk 170 from Tk 120 in a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the owners amid a labour strike.
The prime minister also urged the striking workers to go back to work, her Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus said after the three-hour meeting ended on Saturday evening, reports bdnews24.com.
Kaikaus said festival and medical allowances, ration, subsidies and other facilities will also be increased in proportion to the new wage.
Hasina will soon speak to the workers via video call, according to the official.
The workers launched protests on Aug 9, demanding Tk 300 as daily wage. They abstained from work for two hours daily for four days before the full-scale strike began on Aug 13.
Some of them went back to work after the authorities assured them of Hasina’s intervention to end the impasse and the owners offered a Tk 25 rise in their daily wage to Tk 145.
They rejoined the others in the strike as there was no sign of assurances they could rely on, the protesters said.
Workers and their leaders said it would be difficult for them to live on without Tk 300 a day, but they would accept whatever decision Hasina took.
