A Wage Board and an ‘Iron Hand’: The Government Answers Garment Protests
Rising living costs have pushed Bangladesh’s garment workers to demand a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000, more than double their current pay. As protests spread across industrial areas, the government has formed a wage board while warning that the unrest is being exploited for political ends.
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In a Nutshell
- Garment workers protested in Dhaka, Gazipur, Savar, Ashulia and Tangail on 1 November, demanding that the minimum monthly wage be raised from Tk 12,500 to Tk 30,000. They say current pay does not cover food, rent, transport and healthcare.
- Preliminary information indicates more than 50 factories in Savar and at least 30 in Gazipur declared holidays, including units of Sharmin Group, Ha-Meem Group and New Age Group.
- Workers blocked the Abdullahpur–Baipail road and intersections at Mirpur-10, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-12 and Proshika. In Kalshi, vehicles and a factory’s property were vandalised.
- In the Chandra Palli Bidyut area of Kaliakair, Gazipur, a pickup van and a warehouse storing waste fabric were set on fire. Protesters prevented fire service personnel from reaching the warehouse.
- The government formed a six-member Minimum Wage Board through a gazette notification on 1 November, with representatives of workers, employers, the government and one independent member. Its first meeting is expected shortly.
- On 2 November, after meeting BGMEA and BKMEA leaders, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said those carrying out “unlawful activities and conspiracies under the guise of labour movements” would be dealt with “with an iron hand”.
- He alleged that groups backed by a “fallen autocratic regime” were using workers to create instability, and said several people had been detained.
- The Home Ministry and Police Headquarters have set up a 24-hour control room and the Suraksha App to monitor industrial areas.
Context
Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry is one of the country’s largest export earners and employs millions of workers, many of them women. Wages and working conditions have long been sources of tension. The last major minimum wage revision came in 2023, when the monthly minimum rose from Tk 8,000 to Tk 12,500. Since then, rising prices of food, rent and other essentials have continued to squeeze workers’ household budgets.
Why It Matters
The government has answered a wage dispute in two registers at once. It has formed the wage board and promised a timely decision, while the Home Minister has described the unrest as a plot backed by a “fallen autocratic regime” and promised an “iron hand”. Both may hold some truth, but the second framing carries consequences.
Once protests are treated as a security problem, the space for workers to press their demands openly can narrow, and genuine grievances become harder to distinguish from organised disruption.
For owners, the stakes are immediate. BGMEA and BKMEA have warned that prolonged unrest could delay shipments and strain commitments to international buyers. For the BNP government, which calls itself both pro-worker and pro-investment, this is an early test of whether those two promises can sit together.
What We Think
The minister says the authorities hold video and audio evidence, but none has been made public. Until it is, the claim of a regime-backed plot remains an allegation, and it sits awkwardly beside his own admission that some factory owners are driving the violence. The more lasting question is the gap between Tk 12,500 and Tk 30,000. Workers measure it in rent, food and transport.
Owners measure it in margins and buyer prices. The wage board’s credibility will depend on whether its figure is explained in those same terms, with the numbers published, and whether the promised meeting with workers’ organisations takes place before the decision rather than after.