DHAKA: Bangladeshi garment manufacturers shuttered 150 factories “indefinitely”, as police issued blanket charges for 11,000 workers in connection with violent protests demanding a higher minimum wage, officers said.
Violent protests demanding better pay erupted last month, with at least three workers killed and more than 70 factories ransacked or damaged since, according to police.
A government-appointed panel raised the sector’s wage by 56.25 percent on Tuesday to 12,500 taka, but garment workers have rejected the hike, instead demanding a 23,000 taka minimum wage.
On Thursday, 15,000 workers clashed with police on a key highway and ransacked Tusuka, a top plant, along with a dozen other factories.
“Police have filed cases against 11,000 unidentified people over the attack on Tusuka garment factory,” police inspector Mosharraf Hossain told.
Bangladesh police often issue primary charges against thousands of people — without specifying their names — following large protests and political violence, a tactic that critics say is a way to crack down on dissent.
Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands including Levi’s, Zara and H&M. But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay, until recently, started at 8,300 taka ($75). –Agencies
