A six-member board formed by the government last month has already held a series of meetings to re-fix the minimum wage for the workers and will sit again today to settle the issue. The board will have to recommend a new pay scale for the workers in 90 days.

The government and factory owners agreed to re-fix the wage structure for the garment workers following a labour unrest. Minimum wage for the workers is now Tk 950 set around 12 years ago.

"We would like to give the workers more but we have to consider the financial abilities of the factories. Proposed Tk 1,230 scale will take the total salary of an unskilled worker to around Tk 2,000 whereas minimum salary of Tk 3,000 will make it nearly Tk 5,000," said Annisul Huq, who is representing Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in the board.

Present total wage cost for the workers accounts for roughly 48 to 55 percent of the cutting and manufacturing (CM) charge the owners are getting, he explained adding quota phaseout badly affected the industry and CM has plummeted by 50 percent in just one year.

Citing an example, he said the factory owners received CM ranging between $12 and $14 for a dozen pants from US buyers last year, but they are now getting $6 to $7 for the same product.

If salaries in all grades are increased, total salary amount will be around 130 percent of the CM and not a single factory in the country will be able to survive after paying Tk 5,000 salary a month for an unskilled worker, said Huq, also a former president of BGMEA.

He, however, mentioned that the owners are not rigid about proposed Tk 1,230 minimum salary but there cannot be a radical change.

On the other hand, Nazma Akhtar, workers' representative in the minimum wage board, said: "We did not agree with the minimum wage of Tk 1,230 proposed by the BGMEA leader."

The owners have to raise the minimum salary considering rising living costs, she said.

However, Nazma said the workers are not rigid about their demand of Tk 3,000 a month salary but it should be reasonable.

Kamrul Ahsan, general secretary of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Karmachari Federation, alleged salary of Tk 950 was fixed 12 years back but the owners did not respond to the demands of the workers despite repeated requests.

Even they did not adjust the minimum salary with taka devaluation against the US dollar, he said.

A tripartite meeting of the government, garment owners and workers also agreed to implement a series of decisions in phases to address the labour unrest. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the garment owners and workers was also singed on June 12 in this regard.