New Minimum Wage of the RMG Sector Addressing the Issues of Non-Compliance in Implementation
Moazzem, Khondaker Golam | September 2019
Abstract
The announcement of new minimum wages for the export-oriented readymade garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh in August 2018 had exposed a number of non-compliances—a) significant mismatch between proposed new minimum wages and workers’ demands; b) non-compliance with regard to inter-grade skills based setting of wages; and c) non-compliance in implementing the new wages. The present study, based on a field survey, reviewed those non-compliances, and suggested some immediate doables. The proposed basic wages for workers of grades I, II and III were found to be anomalous—only one-fifth of sample workers found new wage as per their expectation. Workers’ skill was treated as a less-attendant issue in setting the new wages, which was reflected in further narrowing down the wage differences between skilled and unskilled workers. No visible improvement was observed in the weak implementation process—only one-third of the sample workers were informed through formal channel; female workers were less aware about the new structure of their wages; and workers’ organisations were non-responsive to workers’ demands. Addressing these non-compliances will require, among others, strengthening the Minimum Wage Board in setting minimum wages, awareness-raising activities through better communication tools, strengthening monitoring mechanism of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) in post-implementation period, and strengthening workers’ organisations in facilitating the implementation process.
Citation
Moazzem, Khondaker Golam. 2019. New Minimum Wage of the RMG Sector Addressing the Issues of Non-Compliance in Implementation. © Centre for Policy Dialogue. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/11304.ISSN
2225-8175 (Online)
2225-8035 (Print)
Keywords
Economic Crisis
Economic Efficiency
Economic Policies
Regional Economic Development
Job Evaluation
Evaluation
Macroeconomic
Macroeconomic Analysis
Performance Evaluation
Impact Evaluation
Economic Welfare
Economic Incentives
Economic Efficiency
Economies in transition
Economic agreements
Social condition
Economic dependence
Economic assistance
Crisis
Unemployment
Economic cooperation
Gross domestic product
Employment
Economic forecast
Economic indicators
Growth models
Gross domestic product
Macroeconomics
Economic forecast
Financial crisis
Labor economics
Regional economics
Turnover
Economic survey
Job analysis
Labor turnover
International relief
Exports
Economic development projects
Economic policy
Economic forecasting
Wages and labor productivity
Efficiency wage theory
Income Distribution
Online
Digital
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