Workers in some sectors, like the shrimp and leather goods and footwear industries, get as low as Tk 6,700 and Tk 7,100 in monthly minimum wages, respectively, which are far below the amount they need to make both ends meet as living costs have increased manifolds.

Leather and jute industries are the second and third highest export-earning sectors for Bangladesh, respectively, after apparel and textiles, but workers in these sectors have been struggling to cope with high inflation.

In another export sector shrimp industry workers are also unhappy with the low minimum wage amid soaring living costs.

‘I have been working at Bagerhat Seafood Industries Ltd for the past 14 years, and now I receive Tk 8,400 a month. It is too difficult to survive with the amount as commodity prices have been increasing every day,’ said shrimp industry worker Md Miraj Sheikh.

There is a trade union in the Bagerhat shrimp sector, but industry owners are unwilling to consider any demands from the union, he said.

‘The union is helpless in the sector, and we do not see any possibility of increasing our wages,’ Miraj said.

Kohinur Akter, a worker at Fresh Food Ltd in Bagerhat, said that although the government set Tk 6,700 as the minimum wage, she receives Tk 5,200 a month.

Kohinur has been working at the company for 10 years, she said.

‘We have no choice. Every year we stage demonstrations for increasing wages, but factory owners pay no heed to the demand,’ she added.

Considering the commodity prices, the minimum wage for shrimp sector workers should be Tk 15,000, Kohinur said.

The government reviewed the wages for shrimp sector workers in 2022, setting Tk 6,700 as the minimum monthly wage.

Bangladesh’s leather and leather goods sector was the second-highest export earner in the financial year 2022–23.

In 2020, the government reviewed the wages of leather products and footwear workers, setting Tk 7,100 as the minimum wage.

‘It is an unfortunate event for the footwear workers that there is no trade union in the sector to negotiate their wages with the owners in an organised manner,’ Bangladesh Tannery Workers Union president Abul Kalam Azad said.

He said that there was no logic to setting their minimum wage lower than the ready-made garment sector, but they were deprived of a fair wage due to the lack of a trade union to represent the workers in the sector.

‘We have communications with the workers of some of the footwear industry, and they are facing tough situations to meet their daily needs with the low wages,’ Azad said.

He also said that the government set the minimum wage at Tk 12,800 for the tannery workers in 2018, but no tannery owner had implemented the wage.

Work in the tannery industry is one of the most hazardous jobs, and wages in the sector should be higher than in any other sector as workers have to work with harmful chemicals in the industry, Azad said.

He said that the workers in the sector are not happy with their wages as the cost of living has increased excessively.

Demanding Tk 25,000 as the minimum wage for the tannery workers, Azad said that the government has recently formed a minimum wage board for the sector but did not include workers’ representatives from the sector.

He said that the Tannery Workers Union, the only trade union in the sector, has been representing the sector’s workers for decades, but the government has appointed Jatiya Sramik League joint secretary Khan Sirajul Islam as the workers’ representative to the wage board.

Tannery Workers Union secretary Abdul Malek said that they had sent a letter to the labour ministry opposing the appointment of an outsider as workers’ representative to the board.

He claimed that workers in the tannery sector were passing their days in severe hardship due to the increasing living costs.

High inflation also puts the workers of the export-oriented jute and jute goods industries in hardship.

The government last reviewed the wages for the privately-owned jute mill workers in 2022, setting Tk 8,000 as the minimum gross wage and Tk 5,000 as the basic pay.

‘We opposed the minimum wage set by the government and demanded Tk 10,000 as basic pay,’ Shahidullah Khan, workers representative to the wage board for the private jute mill workers, said.

‘Tk 8,000 is a very poor amount for the survival of a worker with his family members,’ he said.

Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association president Kazi Belayet Hossain, however, said that most of the workers in the shrimp sector received higher than the minimum wage.

Bangladesh Tanners Association secretary Md Shakawat Ullah said that tannery owners set the wages of workers in consultation with the leaders of Tannery Workers Union.

When asked whether they implemented the government announced minimum wage for the workers, Shakawat did not give any direct answer.