THE Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has found that garment workers are getting 26 percent less in basic pay than what they should have under the new salary structure. It happened as the minimum wage board that recommended the new salary structure for the garment workers did not take into consideration the 5 percent annual automatic increment while fixing the pay. The wage board was supposed to consider the 5 percent annual increment of last the five years since 2013. The TIB arranged a media briefing in the capital on Tuesday to share its findings on “good governance in the RMG sector: progresses and challenges” marking the sixth anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse.
The TIB also found that factory owners have raised the production target by 30 percent to 36 percent with the hike of the wage, which came into effect in December last year. “As a result, the workers are under pressure to fulfil the time-bound production target,” executive director of the TIB said. He said workers even sometimes could not go to toilets as they had to fulfil the production target. If the target is not reached, in some cases the workers have to work overtime without any additional payment and factory officials hurl abuses at workers.
Some dishonest officials of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) take Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 from factory owners in bribe for awarding licences, TIB said. Besides, the bribe amount is Tk 5,000 to Tk 7,000 for licence renewal. Not only that, a section of DIFE officials accept Tk 50,000 to Tk 70,000 from service-seekers in bribe for the permission of master layouts of a structure while the amount is Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 in case of layout amendment.
What we see that, an abnormal situation prevails in most of the garment factories which is directly conflicting to the favourable working atmosphere. The RMG sector, the single source of foreign exchange earnings, can’t be ruined for corrupt practice of some owners and government officials.
