After eight days of labour unrest, the government yesterday announced a revised pay structure, with a slight increase in both basic and gross wages in six of the seven grades in the RMG sector.
In the new pay scale, which comes after years, the yearly increment has been fixed at 5 percent.
Workers had been demanding pay raise in three grades in particular -- grade 3, 4 and 5.
The decision came following directives of the prime minister after an event-packed day, on which workers continued their protests, factory owners threatened to shut down their units and a tripartite committee held almost a daylong meeting to reach a consensus on the hike.
The meeting of the 20-member committee, which has representation of the workers, owners and the government, approved wage increase in grade 1-6. The hike ranges from a token Tk 15 to a modest Tk 747.
The raise is effective from December last year and will be adjusted from February.
The gross pay in grade 7 remains unchanged at Tk 8,000, which was Tk 5,300 in the previous pay structure announced in 2013.
The government will publish a new gazette of the revised wage in the next three to four days, said Labour and Employment Secretary Afroza Khan, who heads the tripartite committee.
The committee was considering pay hikes in the three “most problematic” grades -- 3, 4 and 5.
But at a meeting at Gono Bhaban on Saturday night, Sheikh Hasina instructed officials to revise the latest pay structure, originally announced in September last year, for all grades, sources said.
The workers will receive the arrear with their pay for February, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi told reporters after the meeting.
“We were mainly concerned about the pay in grade 3, 4 and 5. But we eventually revised the wages six grades so workers get a little more,” he said, announcing the decision at a press conference at the ministry.
Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garment Workers Federation, said, “We welcome the revision and the new wage structure.”
He was speaking on behalf of the trade union leaders who are on the tripartite committee.
Reaction among the workers were mixed.
Alamgir Kabir, who works at a Ha-Meem Group factory, said he was happy and that he would join work today.
Another worker, however, said he was not satisfied. But still he would go back to work, if his colleagues did so.
Incidents of labour unrest over the pay structure made headlines in early December, just two months after the pay package was announced.
That protest died down ahead of the general election.
However, when workers drew their salary for January, they spotted a huge disparity -- in some cases, their gross wages came down instead of going up, triggering the latest bout of protest.
After yesterday's announcement, trade union leaders hope the workers will join work.
“We, the trade union orgainsations, do not approve of the anarchy that we have seen over the last few days,” said Amirul of the National Garment Workers Federation.
He also said they would have no objection if the government took action against any wrongdoers.
“We are requesting the workers to go back to work from tomorrow [today]. We are also calling them to cooperate with the factory managements so they can make up for the loss incurred in the last few days,” he said.
Meanwhile, BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman yesterday threatened to shut down all factories if the workers did not join work.
"No work, no pay," he told an emergency press conference at the BGMEA office.
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