The minimum wage of workers in the tannery industry should be Tk 22,776 considering the current market conditions and high inflation, according to a study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
A minimum wage of Tk 13,500 was fixed for the workers of the export-oriented tannery industry in 2018. But the owners did not implement that, said Tamim Ahmed, a senior research associate at CPD, at a discussion and media briefing on the new minimum wage for the workers in the sector at the CPD office in Dhaka.
Tanners, however, opposed the proposal.
"Tannery owners are not doing well, so implementation of the CPD proposed minimum wage is not possible," said Md Shaheen Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Tanners Association at the event today.
He said that their production costs have gone up because of increased electricity and gas tariffs.
Besides, he said that tanners are compelled to sell leather to non-compliant Chinese companies at low prices because of the improper functioning of the tannery factories at the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate.
