Uzbekistan: Pay increased for cotton-pickers, 11 September 2020

Authorities in Uzbekistan have set a new pay scale for cotton-pickers with the hope of injecting economic dynamism into rural areas badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The Agriculture Ministry announced this week that pickers will earn anywhere between $0.10 and $0.40 for every kilogram of cotton collected by hand. That is up from the $0.02-$0.08 range of 2019...

The government has furthermore advised that fieldworkers should be paid every five days for their labor or even, if necessary, daily. Withholding payment has traditionally served as a way of compelling laborers to persist in sticking out the entire harvest season, notwithstanding fatigue or any other obligations that might have arisen.

On September 5, Deputy Employment and Labor Relations Minister Bahodir Umurzakov said at a briefing that work contracts would be signed with pickers before they went into the fields.

“During this year’s cotton season, labor legislation and the recommendations of international labor organizations will be strictly observed, and forced and child labor will not be tolerated,” the official pledged.