The minimum monthly wage for the four million workers in the garment industry of Bangladesh is now set to go up by 77 percent to the current equivalent of U$68.17 on Dec. 1. The new wage rate, which remains one of the lowest in the world, is a compromise between the workers' request for an increase to US104.36 and the various offers made by the employers, which started off with a 20 percent hike, subsequently raised to an increase of 50 percent.

The workers had vehemently protested against the employers' offers, leading more than 200 apparel plants to shut down. The final compromise deal was reached by a government-appointed wage board grouping six representatives of the industry and the labor unions, but industry sources expressed fear of further labor unrest, considering also the fact that the unions had asked for the new minimum wage to take effect from this month. They also said that the local industry stands to lose 37 percent of its competiveness.

The minimum wage is part of a wider package of conditions that include specific fees for house rents, medical allowances, transportation and food subsidies. It calls for the basic salary to go up by 5 percent each year. A separate initiative, called the Better Work Program and overseen by the International Labor Organization, is set to improve working conditions and safety for the garment industry's employees after the collapse of an industry complex last April, which caused the death of 1,100 workers. In one of several incidents of the kind, nine more workers died in a fire at a textile factory in Bangladesh at the beginning of last month.

Meanwhile, workers have been clamoring for higher wages and better working conditions in various other Asian countries including Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia. In Cambodia, a clash between garment workers and armed police forces took place earlier this week over a strike about working conditions, leading to the death of a woman and injuries inflicted on nine other people. A total of 83 strikes were counted in the country's garment industry in the first seven months of this year, compared with 121 for all of 2012.

In Indonesia, some 50,000 workers involved in many sectors of the economy staged a two-day strike earlier this month to back their demands for higher salaries and health insurance benefits as well as employment security.

Increases of between 11 and 40 percent in minimum wages are set to be implemented in various regions of Indonesia after new labor demonstrations and violence. At the equivalent of US$213 a month, it will reach the highest level in the area of Jakarta. The minimum wage in Jakarta and the surrounding region was already raised last January by 44 percent, after another series of strikes.

Some 1.4 million workers are employed in the textile and apparel industry of Indonesia. Another 2.5 million work officially in the garment industry of Cambodia, where the minimum wage was raised to US$80 last May, but there are said to be as many as eight million including undeclared workers.

In Malaysia, the first minimum wage is scheduled to go into effect next January. It has been set at the equivalent of US$292 per month in the Malaysian peninsula and at US$260 on the island of Borneo, but about 400 employers have asked to be exempted.

Bangladesh's apparel exports jumped by 24 percent in the quarter ended last Sept. 30, exceeding targets, but they slowed down in August. Before the latest wage increase, Bangladesh was considered to be the biggest alternative to China for apparel sourcing, followed by Vietnam, India and Cambodia.

In conclusion, the labor situation is very fluid now in the Far East. The industry's big Western clients might question whether they should really shift their production to these new territories from China and Vietnam, which are still their primary sources, despite big cost increases over the past few years, or perhaps explore other areas, including countries close to the major markets.

It will one of several issues that will be tackled at the conference on the future of manufacturing being staged by the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry in Taipei on Dec. 2-3. The final agenda is now posted on WFSGI's website.