DHAKA — The chairman of Bangladesh’s national pay commission, Zakir Ahmed Khan, said talks with ministry secretaries on a new salary structure for public employees had been productive, although not all secretaries attended.
The pay commission met Monday with secretaries from various ministries and divisions to discuss the new salary framework. The meeting began at 3 p.m. in the national pay commission’s conference room and ran until 5 p.m. Khan spoke to reporters afterward.
Asked when recommendations might be ready, he said the panel hoped to submit its report “in a short time” once consultations conclude.
The government formed the pay commission on July 27 to fix a timely and appropriate salary structure for officers and staff covered by the national pay scale.
In an interview Sunday, Nov. 23, Badiul Kabir, president of the Bangladesh Secretariat Officers and Employees’ Joint Council, said the commission could submit its recommendations by Nov. 30. If demands are not met by then, he said, a larger program of action would be announced from a Dec. 5 mass rally.
According to a notice from the commission, new recommendations will be drafted after reviewing the salaries, allowances and other benefits of officers and employees of government, semi-government and autonomous institutions, state-owned banks and financial bodies, government-sanctioned universities and state-owned industrial enterprises. Khan, who chairs the National Pay Commission, 2025, is presiding over the meetings.
Kabir said employees are waiting for the new pay scale. If the commission wishes, it can submit recommendations by Nov. 30, he said, adding that at minimum a summary should be filed within the deadline. Otherwise, he said, employees will launch protests.
Employees have now united, Kabir said, and are determined to carry out any program of action at any time. “We are giving the commission time. It must submit its report within this time. If demands are not met within the deadline, such a program will be given that the commission will be forced to do one year’s work in one week,” he said.
If demands are not met within the deadline, a larger program of action will be announced from the Dec. 5 mass rally, he said.
The pay commission set up to draft the new pay scale could submit its final recommendations in the last week of December, according to reports. The commission has already completed about 50 percent of the work on the recommendations. Secretaries’ views will be sought next week, after which the commission will move to finalize its report.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report