Protests continue as Bangladesh set to declare new minimum wage

Police used tear gas to disperse a large group of workers who had set a bus on fire outside the capital of Bangladesh on Tuesday, as tensions escalated in anticipation of a forthcoming announcement regarding a new minimum wage for millions of garment industry labourers. Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories contribute to about 85 per cent of the country’s annual exports, totaling $55 billion, and supply major fashion brands like Levi’s, Zara, and H&M. However, the working conditions for the sector’s four million employees, predominantly women whose monthly salaries start at 8,300 taka ($75), are often challenging. Workers have gone on strike to demand a near-tripling of their wages, with violent scenes in recent days, while employers have offered 25 per cent. The state-appointed minimum wage board panel, composed of representatives from manufacturers, unions, and wage experts, was scheduled to announce a new wage level on Tuesday. Violence erupted in the industrial city of Gazipur, where around 6,000 workers walked out of their factories and staged protests upon hearing rumors that authorities might only increase their wages to roughly half of their demand. A police officer told AFP that the workers reacted angrily to “false information” circulated on social media claiming that union leaders had been arrested and that the panel would establish a minimum wage of 12,000 taka ($108), rather than the 23,000 taka ($208) sought by the labourers. The panel typically sits every five years, and in 2018, they increased the basic minimum wage from 5,000 taka to 8,000 taka. Additionally, garment workers receive at minimum 300 taka per month as an attendance fee. Unions say their members have been hard hit by persistent inflation, which in October reached nearly 10 per cent, and a cost of living crisis partly triggered by the taka depreciating about 30 per cent against the US dollar since early last year. With inputs from agencies