Junior Workers’ are paid 2,750 taka per month ($1.00 = 82.45 taka) 16 cents an hour $ 1.28 a day (8 hours) $ 7.70 a week (48 hours) $ 33.35 a month $400.24 a year Senior Experienced Workers are paid 3,855 taka a month 22 cents an hour $ 1.80 a day (8 hours) $ 10.79 a week (48 hours) $ 46.76 a month $561.07 a year Nor do workers receive their pay stubs along with their wages. The pay stubs are handed out 15 days later, making it impossible for workers to challenge any underpayment. The work is also exhausting. For one thing, most knitters are on their feet for the entire 12-hour shift. Supervisors push the workers to reach their excessive production targets, which are arbitrarily set by management. Management is always looking for ways to fire experienced workers, to bring in cheaper workers who earn just 16 cents an hour. Also, the senior workers are more aware of their legal rights under the labor code. The workers told us, “Our backs are close to the wall, and we live always in fear of losing our jobs.”
Every Single Labor Law is Blatantly Violated By law, all overtime work beyond the regular daily eight-hour shift must be paid at double time. A senior worker should make 44 cents an hour (double the regular 22-cent an hour wage) for all overtime work. But this is not how the Chinese managers operate. No one is paid the legal overtime wage. Every single worker is being cheated! The normal peak season shift is 78 working hours per week—48 regular hours and 30 overtime hours. The 30 overtime hours should by law be paid as double time, at 44 cents an hour. But management never pays more than the minimum wage of 22 cents an hour. It may not seem like a big deal. So what if management steals 22 cents per hour by not paying the legal overtime rate? In fact, management—in broad daylight—is stealing $143,000 a month from some of the hardest working yet poorest workers in Bangladesh! [22 cents an hour x 30 OT hours = $6.60 per week, or $28.60 per month per worker. $28.60 x 5000 workers = $143,000 per month in wages stolen from the workers.]