Staff Reporter:
General employees of public organisations will launch an indefinite work abstention programme across the country on 15 December unless the government announces the “9th Pay Scale,” they warned at a rally on Friday.
The pay scale must come into force in January, before the general elections are held, they demanded.
Bangladesh Government Workers’ Demand Realisation Unity Council organised the rally at Central Shaheed Minar on Friday, drawing in hundreds of thousands of non-officer level employees.
The workers demanded minimum Tk35,000 monthly salary for all staffers, and the shrinking of the current 20-grade government pay structure to a 12-grade system.
Abu Nasir Khan, one of the protest leaders, said the government is supposed to upgrade the pay structure every five years to help public workers and officers keep up with rising consumer prices. However, no such upgrades have been approved since 2015, even as the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine War pushed up prices alarmingly.
Nasir referred to multiple previous protests organised by the government workers to demand higher salaries.
He said the government took a positive decision by forming the National Pay Commission to hike salaries and improve salary structure. However, later, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said the next government would implement the 9th Pay Scale, causing frustrations among public workers.
The interim government must implement the improved pay scale itself, Nasir said at the rally.
Many politicians also joined the rally to express solidarity with the protesters. Nagorik Oikya President Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Gono Odhikar Parishad President Nurul Haque Nur, and Ganosamhati Andolon Chief Coordinator Zonayed Saki, were present at the rally, among other political leaders.
