In brief
For the third consecutive day, garment workers in Bangladesh have blocked factories across Dhaka, Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur, using tear gas and sound grenades against police. The government has set up a wage board to review the 12,500‑taka monthly minimum, while workers demand 30,000 taka. About 500 factories have been temporarily shut, and border guards were deployed.
For the third straight day on Monday, Bangladeshi garment workers have kept factories closed in Dhaka and surrounding industrial hubs, citing low wages and soaring inflation.
Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury reported that roughly 500 factories were shut after Saturday’s first wave of protests, and that police poured tear gas and sound‑grenades on thousands of demonstrators.
Outlook India noted 45 factories were shut and that border guards were deployed in Dhaka and Gazipur as workers clashed with law enforcement.
Workers demand a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka – more than double the current 12,500 taka – to keep pace with the cost of living.
The government inaugurated a wage board on Sunday to review the wage scale, and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman held an emergency meeting with ministers and advisers.
Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation and a wage‑board representative, said factory owners must negotiate better prices with buyers if they cannot pay workers properly.
Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, welcomed the wage board but urged workers to allow the review to proceed without further disruption.
Bangladesh’s garment industry, worth about $38 billion, is a major source of export earnings and employment, but faces higher costs and uncertain demand as production struggles amid international tensions and energy price volatility.
