WE JUST noticed a mass movement of more than 150,000 tea workers striking and protesting for a minimum living wage in Bangladesh. Garment labour rights organisations have also started to mobilise for increasing the existing minimum wage to a livable one. Against this backdrop, I would like to draw attention to some fundamental problems that our labour laws, wage structure, and review process entail. The Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 dictates the minimum wage for workers. According to the labour law, the minimum wage should be reconsidered every five years. In reality, some sectors revisit the minimum wage every five years, some do it every three years, and some do not review it at all.
WE NEED laws and policies requiring a yearly wage increment in all employment sectors. Although the Bangladeshi context is not comparable to the United States just because the countries are vastly different in so many ways, there are some similarities and some scopes to learn from labour organising initiatives in the United States. For example, the US federal minimum wage has remained at USD 7.25/hour since 2009. Workers and activists in this country have long been organising to raise the federal minimum wage to at least USD 15/hour. Still, the federal government has been more interested in protecting the interests of big businesses, corporations, and the free market. Nevertheless, some states in the United States have demonstrated promising trends in increasing the state-level minimum wage....
You are reading the second issue of the Disinformation Monitor. It is published on a monthly basis and provides an overview of developments on the disinformation scenes on NATO’s eastern frontier....