In brief
Bangladesh announced a six‑member wage board to review the current 12,500‑taka minimum wage after garment workers staged protests. Workers are demanding 30,000 taka and have halted operations at multiple factories, prompting clashes with police. The board’s first meeting remains pending as uncertainty lingers over wage hikes, factory closures, and export shipments.
In Dhaka on Sunday, the Bangladeshi government announced the creation of a six‑member wage board to review the minimum wage for garment workers, while thousands of laborers continued striking for higher pay. The board will include representatives from the government, factory owners and workers, and is tasked with setting a new minimum wage that reflects recent increases in food, housing, transport and healthcare costs.
"The issue of forming the wage board has been resolved. There will be no more problems now," Ministry of Labour and Employment adviser M Sakhawat Hossain Chowdhury told reporters. He urged workers to return to work and resume production smoothly.
Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury cautioned that prolonged factory closures could delay export shipments and payments from international buyers, creating further difficulties for manufacturers and workers alike. He warned that delays would affect both production and the earnings of workers who rely on the garment sector.
The protests began last Saturday, with roughly 30 garment factories on the outskirts of Dhaka declaring a holiday. According to Mohammad Mominul Islam Bhuiyan, superintendent of the Ashulia Industrial Police, clashes between workers and police in Ashulia injured several people, including police officers, and forceful measures such as tear gas and sound grenades were deployed.
The garment industry, the world’s second‑largest exporter after China, contributes about 10 percent of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product. Despite its economic importance, manufacturers are grappling with rising production costs, intermittent gas and electricity shortages, and energy‑market volatility linked to tensions in the Middle East during the United States‑Israel war on Iran.
While the board’s formation is a concrete step toward addressing wage concerns, key questions remain. Workers still demand a 30,000‑taka minimum wage, more than double the current 12,500 taka. The timing of the board’s first meeting and the eventual wage decision are still unclear. Factory closures, production disruptions and export shipment delays continue to cast uncertainty over the industry’s stability.
