Garment workers in Bangladesh staged protests in Dhaka and Gazipur on Sunday, demanding higher wages and better working conditions, prompting the government to announce the formation of a new minimum wage board. According to local media reports, protesting workers blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway in Gazipur, raising slogans and demanding a minimum monthly salary of 30,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately ₹23,000).
Workers also occupied several locations along the highway, including Safipur Bazar, Chandra Polli Bidyut, Mouchak and Telichala in Kaliakair upazila. Reports said employees from nearby garment factories initially marked their attendance before joining the demonstrations. During the protest, a police box in the Konabari area was reportedly set on fire.
Similar demonstrations took place at the Mirpur 10 intersection in Dhaka, where garment workers blocked roads, disrupting traffic. The blockade also forced the closure of the gates of Mirpur 10 Metro Station. Police personnel were deployed to control the situation.
Meanwhile, Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury announced the formation of a new minimum wage board and urged workers to end their protests and return to their factories.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat, the minister said the government was giving the workers’ demands the utmost importance. “Their demand was a wage board; today their wage board has been formed. The board has been formed with the members they provided as representatives. Now, I hope they will leave the streets and return to their factories,” he said.
The newly constituted wage board will be chaired by Senior District and Sessions Judge Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman. The board includes ABM Shamsuddin, director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), and Asif Ayub, joint secretary-general of the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation, as representatives of factory owners.
Workers will be represented by Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation, and Anwar Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal. Professor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed of the University of Dhaka has been appointed as the independent representative.
Welcoming the government’s decision, workers’ representative Babul Akhter expressed hope that the wage board would begin functioning soon.
