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Dhaka, Bangladesh. Millions of garment workers across Bangladesh who put in 13-hour shifts making Western clothes for the lowest industry wages in the world are waiting to learn if they have finally been granted a pay rise.

On Wednesday, an emergency wage board committee of government officials, garment manufacturers and union leaders is scheduled to announce whether the current monthly minimum wage of just 1,662 taka ($25) will be raised.

The committee’s decision will be closely watched by fashion buyers the world over and will have repercussions that will reach the popular clothing shops of Western shopping streets.

Bangladeshi workers, who say they are unable to live on their current salaries, are threatening to return to the streets and continue protests that have seen factories ransacked and led to violent clashes with police.

Last Thursday, hundreds of thousands of workers closed the key Ashulia export area that produces for Wal-Mart, H&M and Marks & Spencer, dealing a major blow to an industry that is aiming to steal contracts from Chinese competitors.

“Next week’s decision is so important — for the workers, for the industry, for the country,” said Shanty Begum, 34, who has worked in a factory for 17 years.

Garment workers from multiple factories described routine violations of the current minimum standards including underpayment, working hours far in excess of the statutory limit and abuse by factory managers.

“I hadn’t been paid for three months. I told my manager: ‘If you don’t pay us, we won’t work,’ and he smashed my head into a sewing machine,” said Begum, a female garment worker.

Nargis Akher, 18, worked at a factory for two and a half years earning 1,660 taka a month until last week — when she lost her job.

“When they found out I’d been in the protests my manager slapped me across the face, called me a whore and dragged me out of the factory by my hair,” she said, adding she was owed back wages but was unlikely to get them.

“Everyone joined the protests secretly because we can’t live like this. I am behind on my rent, I have food bills I haven’t paid,” she said.

The Bangladeshi government and industry representatives are now locked in discussions over the wage increase, with unions demanding a 5,000-taka minimum and factory owners resisting a substantial increase.

“If they do not meet our demands we will have no option but to strike, we will create a militant movement, we will be on the streets again,” said Mosherafa Mishu, head of the Garment Workers Unity Forum.

“Do you see how much rent is? How much food costs? And they earn just 1,662 per month, and this is including allowances. The actual basic salary is 1,100 taka. How can three million workers live on this tiny amount?”

This week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina entered the highly charged debate for the first time, telling the powerful garment industry, which accounts for 80 percent of the South Asian country’s annual exports, to compromise.

“It is not possible for the workers to live on the wages they get now,” the prime minister told Parliament on Wednesday.

“Factory owners are profiting from this industry, they have to share some of these profits with the workers,” Hasina said, adding she believed the negotiations would find an “acceptable solution” on a wage increase.

But the industry — which enjoyed record sales last month, with Bangladesh shipping $1.72 billion worth of goods in June, the highest monthly export in the country’s 40-year history — is not prepared to back down.

Faruque Hassan, the acting president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Export Association, said the country was being “unfairly maligned” over wages. “Our competitors, for example Cambodia, Vietnam, they are paying very similar wages to us, very similar amounts per hour,” he said.

Hassan said a major wage hike or any further unrest risked jeopardizing the future of the industry, particularly as it seeks to capitalize on the recent rise in manufacturing costs in China.

Even if workers do secure a wage increase, however, enforcement is likely to be difficult.

A quarter of Bangladesh’s garment factories do not comply with current mandatory standards on pay, working hours and conditions, Commerce Ministry spokesman Faizul Haque said on Friday.


Agence France-Presse