Editorial
Fair food prices for RMG workers
A modest step that needs to be taken forward
The Ministry of Food and Disaster Management has taken an initiative to provide food items at fair prices to garment and knit workers. An MoU is likely to be signed soon with the BGMEA and BKMEA leaders to this end. This is undoubtedly welcome news which could not have come a day later. We believe this will ease the plight of the workers to some extent given the continued inflationary pressures compounded by soaring food prices before the month of Ramadan. But does fair price mean affordable price?
We hope it would not be a seasonal relief to fend off the pressure of prices during Ramadan, rather it would continue all the year round especially until such time as their salaries are raised from the current minimum of Tk 3,000. Our understanding is that the three-year cap on their salary increase ends in 2013. In the meanwhile, though, the costs of living have gone up so much so that these cannot even be affordable to middle income people. Among the basic needs, housing is crucial and the rents and electricity charge have skyrocketed. Under the circumstances, it is desirable that negotiations for arriving at a sustainable living wage for the workers will be initiated.
There is no gainsaying the fact that garment export is one of the strongest pillars of our economy and therefore, in keeping with the pivotal importance of the sector, matching steps must get underway to ensure better wages and good working environment for the RMG workers.
Frequent unrest in this sector has a disastrous impact not only on this industry but also on the economy as a whole. Since lower pay has been one of the persistent reasons behind such unrest, we urge all concerned quarters including the garment owners and the government to address this issue immediately.
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