Bangladesh sends border guards to garment belt as wage protests turn violent near Dhaka

Bangladesh deployed border guards in the garment belt north of Dhaka on Sunday after workers demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000 blocked highways, clashed with police and set a police box on fire, as protests over pay in the country's biggest export industry stretched into a third day.

Dozens of factories around the capital declared holidays to avoid trouble. The labour ministry set up a new six-member minimum wage board for the sector on Sunday and urged workers to go back to work, but protesters were still on the streets in Gazipur by the evening, according to reports by UNB, Outlook India, IANS and ANI.

What happened

In Dhaka's Mirpur district, workers blocked the Mirpur-10 intersection from about 9 am local time (8.30 am IST) on Sunday, along with the roads from Mirpur-11 to Agargaon and from Mirpur-2 to Mirpur-13, the Bangladeshi news agency UNB reported. They had staged five-hour blockades in the same area on Thursday, 29 October, and on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon the protesters had dispersed from Mirpur and traffic was back to normal, Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Md Mohidul Islam said, according to Outlook India.

The unrest was heavier in Gazipur, the industrial district north of the capital. Workers blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway at several points, including Chandra, Palli Bidyut, Konabari, Bhogra, Naojor, Safipur and Mouchak, UNB reported. At Konabari, police fired tear gas and sound grenades at about 10.30 am after workers threw bricks and stones, it said.

Protesters set fire to a police box on the highway at Konabari, the officer in charge of Konabari police station, Iftekhar Hossain, told IANS. Outlook India reported that three places in the Palli Bidyut area, including a factory warehouse, were set alight. At least 15 vehicles, among them a police vehicle, were damaged in Saturday's violence, UNB reported.

In Ashulia, another factory hub on the edge of Dhaka, workers stopped work and blocked the Abdullahpur-Baipail road, IANS reported. A police officer was hit by bricks and stones there, the superintendent of Ashulia Industrial Police-1, Mohammad Mominul Islam Bhuiyan, told the agency. No other injuries, and no arrests, had been reported by Sunday evening in the accounts reviewed by The Declaration.

Factories shut, border guards sent in

At least 45 factories in Gazipur declared a general holiday on Sunday, Mohammad Amjad Hossain, superintendent of Gazipur Industrial Police-2, said, according to Outlook India. He told UNB that most factories had closed to prevent "untoward incidents". More than 50 garment factories in Ashulia also announced a holiday, IANS reported, citing The Daily Star and the industrial police. The figures cover different areas and may overlap.

Gazipur's deputy commissioner, Md Nurul Karim Bhuiyan, said members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), the country's paramilitary border force, had been deployed in the industrial areas alongside other agencies. A BGB spokesperson, Shariful Islam, told UNB that the force would operate under the supervision of five executive magistrates of the Gazipur district administration until 7 November, in Chandra, Palli Bidyut, Safipur, Konabari, Mouchak, Naojor and the Bhogra bypass. Outlook India and IANS put the deployment at five platoons.

The wage demand

Workers want the minimum monthly wage for garment workers raised to Tk 30,000. The current minimum is Tk 12,500, ANI reported. In Ashulia, protesters also demanded an end to the blacklisting of workers, according to IANS.

ANI reported that the government had recently announced a new pay scale that roughly doubles salaries for its own employees, which it said had raised expectations among factory workers. Factory owners told the agency that orders had fallen, buyers were not paying more and imported raw materials had become expensive, making the workers' demand difficult to meet.

Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury urged workers to return to their factories, saying their demand for a mechanism to set wages had been met and that the new board would start work immediately and meet to discuss pay, Outlook India reported. He also suggested that "external forces" might be stirring up the protests. He did not offer evidence for the claim, and no workers' group had responded to it in the reports reviewed.

The new wage board

The ministry issued two notifications on Sunday forming a six-member minimum wage board for the ready-made garment sector under the Bangladesh Labour Act, Outlook India reported. Its members represent employers, workers and neutral parties, and it is headed by senior district and sessions judge Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman. No deadline for its recommendation has been reported. The Declaration could not access the notifications themselves.

Background

Ready-made garments are the backbone of Bangladesh's economy. The sector earns more than 80% of the country's export income and employs about 4 million people, 60-70% of them women, ANI reported. Minimum pay in the industry is fixed by a government-appointed wage board on which both owners and workers sit, which is why the formation of a new board was the government's main answer to Sunday's protests.

The unrest comes at a sensitive time for Dhaka. Factory owners say they are under pressure from weaker orders and higher costs, while workers point to rising living costs and the new pay scale for government staff.

Why it matters for India and Bengal

Bangladesh's garment industry competes with India's own apparel exporters for orders from the same global brands, and it buys cotton, yarn and fabric from abroad, including from India. Much of that cross-border trade moves by road through West Bengal, including the Petrapole-Benapole crossing in North 24 Parganas, so disruption in Bangladesh's factory belts is felt by traders and transporters on the Indian side as well.

Political and economic stability in Dhaka also bears on relations with New Delhi, which are already strained. Bangladesh has said it will raise the extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina when officials of the two countries meet in Dhaka on 17 and 18 November.

What happens next

• BGB personnel will remain deployed in Gazipur's industrial areas until 7 November, according to the BGB.
• The new minimum wage board is due to begin work; no date for its first meeting has been announced.
• Workers have not said whether they will call off the protests now that the board has been formed.

Key numbers

• Tk 30,000: the minimum monthly wage workers are demanding
• Tk 12,500: the current minimum, according to ANI
• 45+: factories closed in Gazipur on Sunday (industrial police, via Outlook India)
• 50+: factories closed in Ashulia on Sunday (IANS, citing The Daily Star)
• 80%+: garments' share of Bangladesh's export earnings (ANI)