H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson has met with Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, seeking an increase in the minimum wage and annual wage reviews for workers in the nation’s textile industry.

“Since foreign trade plays a major role in the development of countries as a source of economic growth, we believe it is in the interest of the Bangladeshi textile industry, as well as in ours, that the industry continues to develop and mature,” said Persson.

He added that stable markets in which people are treated with respect, and where the workers are properly compensated by their employers, are of utmost importance.

H&M urged the Bangladeshi government to consider an annual review of the local minimum wage that takes national inflation and the consumer price index into consideration. Since the minimum wage for textile workers was first set in 1994, it has been revised only twice – in 2006 and 2010.

Despite inflation since 2010, there has been no further adjustment and H&M argues that if a proper review system is created and enforced, revisions will help address the basic needs of the workers and bring greater stability to the market.

This in turn will help employers and buyers to work together and focus on productivity as well as on developing a constructive framework to improve resource efficiency in the textile and garment sector, it argues.

Bangladesh is an important buying market for H&M which has been sourcing products there since 1982. It opened a production office in Dhaka in 1983.

H&M does not own any factories or make decisions on wages, but like all companies buying products from Bangladesh.

GB