Protests over garment wages disrupted production at nearly 700 factories in Bangladesh in the first week of November, but operations had started to recover by Nov. 6 as a wage board reviewed workers’ demands without deciding how much pay should rise.
Workers want a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka, up from 12,500, and say their pay has not kept up with the cost of basic needs such as food, housing and transport. On Nov. 2, manufacturers’ associations said production had stopped at 690 factories, affecting more than 1.7 million workers. Demonstrations and work stoppages affected industrial areas around Dhaka, including Gazipur, Ashulia and Savar.
Some protests also led to clashes with police and disrupted roads. The government formed a six-member wage board on Nov. 1. At its first meeting, the board agreed to introduce a revised wage structure from December.
Workers were expected to receive pay under the new structure from January 2027. The size of the increase remained undecided. By Thursday, factories in Gazipur, Narayanganj and Dhaka’s Mirpur district had largely resumed operations.
More than 100 factories in Ashulia and Savar declared holidays as a precaution. The disruption has put pressure on an industry that employs about four million people and earns more than 80% of Bangladesh’s export revenue.