State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque believes that most workers of readymade garment factories will accept the announcement of the Tk 8,000 minimum wage.
“I believe that, aside from a small portion, most garment workers will accept it. There is no scope for discontent as the minimum wage was raised by 51 per cent,” the state minister said, reports bdnews24.com.
“We have the support of the labourers, so we believe there will not be any problems,” he said.
“We announced the wage increase in accordance with the Prime Minister’s commitments in order to curb dissatisfaction,” the junior minister added.
The state minister made the remarks at an event on Sunday amid announcements from several labour organisations that the minimum wage would be boycotted.
The event was organised to hand over dividends to the Sramik Kalyan Foundation treasury.
His attention was brought to some labour organisations that had opposed the proposed minimum wage.
“It is their business if they accept it or not...But this is the minimum. They cannot pay less,” he replied.
“Even if you do good work, some people will oppose it,” Haque said. “Even if you gave a wage of Tk 100,000, some people will still claim it is not enough.”
Many factories may have to shut down if the minimum wage was higher, Haque said.
“If that is the case, workers would lose jobs. I want to know to what extent those organisations [who are boycotting the proposed minimum wage] are attempting to alleviate the hardships of workers and to what degree they are pursuing other agendas.”
