The apparel sector leaders have urged the government to suspend for two years the effectiveness of the legal provision for annual wage hike of garment workers on excuse of Covid-19 that hit the industry hard.
They made the plea in a letter to the state minister for labour recently, sources said.
The workers are entitled to get an annual wage increment of 5.0 per cent.
Economists and labour leaders, however, requested the government not to pay heed to their (factory owners) demand and deprive the workers in this crisis situation. They rather suggested finding alternative way of facing the challenges.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) forwarded the letter, signed by its president AKM Salim Osman, also to the Prime Minister's principle secretary and commerce minister on Sunday.
When asked, BKMEA senior vice president Mohammad Hatem confirmed about the latest move.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic that hit hard the global economy, the scope of employment has squeezed, he said, adding that measures like temporary closure, staff/workers' termination and cut in certain percentage of wages were taken to cope with the situation.
The letter cited example of India that has halted implementation of the labour law in some of the labour-intensive provinces.
There is no forecast until now when the situation will improve, it said, adding the industry does not have sufficient work orders and even there is no indication about future flow of orders.
The exporters receive payments after 180-200 days after the shipments while the buyers were cutting the prices by 10-15 per cent. They are being forced to take low-priced work orders to continue running their business, it said.
"It is not realistic to raise wages by 5.0 per cent in such a situation when many sectors of the world including Bangladesh reduced wages and other allowances," the letter read.
The BKMEA requested the government to suspend the legal provision of 5.0 per cent annual increment for next two years.
The government had last reviewed the garment sector workers' wages in December 2018, fixing it TK 8,000 for the entry level workers.
When asked, Center for Policy Dialogue research director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said the annual increment is not an additional income of the workers.
The provision of annual increment has been introduced to adjust the inflation and now it is working to support the fall in income due to the Covid-induced situation, he added.
"The entrepreneurs have to come out of the mentality of survival by depriving the workers," he said, adding that it is the workers who had accepted the cut in monthly wages in April considering the overall situation.
He suggested the entrepreneurs to negotiate with the brands, buyers and their alliances in this regard instead of requesting the government to suspend the legal provision and depriving the workers.
Talking to the FE, general secretary of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers' Federation Babul Akthar strongly protested the BKMEA's demand and termed it 'illogical and unscrupulous'.
"The workers deserve 'super' increment as they worked even during the pandemic amid health risks wide range of harassments," he said, adding that thousands of workers lost their jobs during the period.
None (workers) would accept it, he said, urging the government not to pay heed to the garment owners' demand.
To offset the impact the Covid-19, the government has already announced a number of stimulus packages to help survive the industries, including the export-oriented readymade garment sector.
The RMG industry received Tk 105 billion from the government as package to pay its workers four months of wages beginning from April last, according to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
According to a latest report by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), the government, various development partners and the buyers' organisations announced a total of Tk 628.79 billion (98.57 per cent by the government) as loans and financial supports for the industry.
Meant for paying four months' wages (April-July), only 16 per cent of the total allocation was used for the workers, while the most part, or 84 per cent, was announced for the owners to deal with their business crisis.
The allocation for wage payment covered 58 per cent of the workers, and 42 per cent were deprived of the support, according to the report.
The local RMG goods shipments experienced a downward trend in most of the months of 2020, except August and September.
Apparel exports recorded the highest 85.25 per cent negative growth in April, as production in most units remained suspended from March 26 to April 25 due to the pandemic-induced lockdown in the country.