'They have to work with whatever their salary is increased': Bangladesh PM rejects further pay hike for garment workers

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that her government would not authorise any further pay hikes for garment workers demanding a nearly tripled wage increase. Earlier this week, garment workers in the Southeast Asian nation intensified their protests in rejection of the 56 per cent pay hike offered by the government. “I would say to the garment workers: they have to work with whatever their salary is increased, they should continue their work,” Hasina told a meeting of her ruling Awami League party late Thursday. Police say that the protests by garment workers have left at least three dead and more than 70 factories ransacked since last week. Hasina added, “If they take to the streets to protest at someone’s instigation, they will lose their job, lose their work and will have to return to their village.” “If these factories are closed, if production is disrupted, exports are disrupted, where will their jobs be? They have to understand that.” On Thursday, police reported violence in the key industrial towns of Gazipur and Ashulia, outside the capital Dhaka, after more than 25,000 workers staged protests in factories and along highways to reject the wage panel’s offer. The country has about 3,500 garment factories that account for 85 per cent of its $55 billion in annual exports which supply products to many of the world’s top fashion retailers including Levi’s, Zara and H&M. “Government officers have got a five percent hike, since there is inflation all over the world – and they (garment workers) will get 56 percent raise,” she said. With inputs from AFP