Garment owners warned: Give minimum wage or get out of business
\nThe New Nation, Bangladesh<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The government would go tough with garment-factory owners to make them pay the recommended minimum wages to their workers if they want to run their business, the Finance and Commerce Adviser warned Sunday.\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow any excuse in implantation of the minimum wage; if they fail, they have to go out of business,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam told reporters to make clear government stance, as there have been complaints about deprivation from ill-paid workers for long. He said this after his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSocial Compliance Forum for RMG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meeting in the Commerce Ministry conference room.<\/p>\n
Responding to a question, he said that the government would take actions as per the law of the land against the defaulter garment owners.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the garment owners say that they will not be able to pay the minimum wage as they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have adequate order, we will not tolerate those lame excuses. You have to pay the minimum wage, otherwise, like the other sorts of business, this business also has exit point as well as entry point,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Aziz said that in a sample study on 1023 garment factories the government figured out that 600 of them are compliant and 130 non-compliant. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The other factories are medium- category factories as they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t apply compliance issues properly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
He also hinted that the government is very much active to make all factories compliant.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the participants also agreed to take experts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 approval for structural design of the factory buildings. In the past, it was mandatory to take approval for layout plan from RAJUK. As of now, the structural plan also will have to have approval from the Works Ministry to avoid factory-building collapse like Spectrum Garments at Savar in April 2005.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Works Ministry will involve the stakeholders in this connection, including the engineers of all public engineering universities,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Adviser said.<\/p>\n
The meeting also decided to work extensively to boost country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s image abroad. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153BGMEA with other stakeholders will review the matter and quickly submit a proposal to the ministry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dr Aziz told the journalists.<\/p>\n
Representatives from BGMEA, BKMEA, BTMA and ministries concerned were present at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a9 Copyright 2003 by The New Nation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Garment owners warned: Give minimum wage or get out of business The New Nation, Bangladesh The government would go tough with garment-factory owners to make them pay the recommended minimum wages to their workers if they want to run their business, the Finance and Commerce Adviser warned Sunday.\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow any excuse in implantation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n