Dhaka, Nov 1. (dpa/GNA) – Bangladeshi police fired tear gas and charged with batons, to disperse crowds as thousands of factory workers took to the streets in the capital, Dhaka, and its adjoining industrial districts on Sunday.
The workers are demanding a wage hike in the garment sector, police said. With the rise in the cost of living, trade unions and garment workers are asking for a rise in the minimum monthly entry-level wage to 30,000 Bangladeshi Taka ($220) from the existing 12,500 Taka, which was set in 2023.
In Dhaka’s Mirpur neighbourhood, several hundred workers blocked a major junction in the morning, bringing traffic to a standstill on the first day of the week.
Later, the protesters set a police van on fire, prompting police to fire water cannons and sound grenades to disperse them.
Authorities closed three metro stations, as the clashes spread to nearby areas, police inspector Mohsin Sheikh said.
Stick-wielding protesters blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway, which connects the capital Dhaka with the country’s northern parts, in the Gazipur industrial district, where most of Bangladesh’s export-oriented garment factories are located.
The government on Sunday formed a six-member panel, comprising representatives from factory owners, trade unions and the government, to revise the minimum wages of workers in the garment sector.
Bangladesh, the second-largest apparel manufacturer after China, annually earns about $39 billion from garment exports, mostly destined for European and US markets. The sector employs more than 4 million workers, mostly women, across 4,000 factories.
GNA