Wage justice cannot wait

The government’s decision to gazette a minimum wage board for readymade garment workers is welcome, though it has come only after days of unrest. Workers in Ashulia, Mirpur and Gazipur blocked roads and highways, at least 23 factories in Ashulia declared holidays, and a police officer was injured in Kathgora. Disorder of this kind helps nobody, yet it would be a mistake to treat it purely as a law-and-order problem. With the Ninth Pay Scale already in effect for public servants, the distance between their pay and that of workers elsewhere has widened sharply. A wage structure that looks generous in one sector and neglectful in another breeds resentment, and resentment eventually finds its way onto the streets.
The garment sector, which earns the bulk of the country’s export income, needs a settlement that is fair and durable. Owners have agreed to a three-year tenure for the board, a sensible compromise, and workers have submitted their nominees. The board must now be constituted without delay and base its work on transparent evidence: inflation, living costs, productivity and the industry’s capacity to pay. Unpaid wages and dues must be cleared immediately, since nothing inflames tempers faster. Unions should press their demands, including the Tk30,000 basic salary, through the board rather than through stone-throwing and vandalism, which unsettle buyers and endanger the very jobs they seek to protect. Owners, in turn, should negotiate in good faith rather than treat the board as a delaying device.
Garments, however, are not the whole story. Millions employed in the informal sector, among them domestic workers, construction labourers, transport workers and staff of small shops, have no wage board, no written contracts and scarcely any protection. The government should introduce minimum wage rules for these workers, review them regularly and back them with credible labour inspection. Otherwise, the gains from a garment settlement and a public-sector pay rise will bypass most working Bangladeshis.
Journalists, too, have waited far too long. The Ninth Wage Board for newspaper employees was gazetted on 12 September 2019, but disputes over income tax and gratuity, with writs pending before the High Court and the Appellate Division, have prevented its full implementation. The government should help resolve these complications and form the Tenth Wage Board without further delay. Wage questions are never settled by one side alone. They demand judiciousness from the government, patience and honesty from owners, and responsibility from unions and workers. Goodwill, not brinkmanship, is the cheapest way to protect both livelihoods and the economy.