Monday, May 13, 2013

Unions in Bangladesh

Political change in Bangladesh: the government is moving to legalize trade unions and raise the minimum wage. Currently trade unions are effectively illegal, and the minimum wage for workers in factories is $39 a month, set in 2010. These changes are a result of the discussion surrounding the factory building collapse that killed more than 1,000 last month.

Hastily conducted inspections of garment factories found critical safety violations at about 800 of them, and those factories are threatened with closure if they can’t correct the problems quickly.