Turmoil triggers wave of factory closures
Around 800 garment factories in Ashulia, Savar, Dhaka and neighbouring areas have remained closed over the past five days amid escalating labour unrest, disrupting production and leaving thousands of workers without work.
On Monday alone, factory owners declared a general holiday and shut 264 factories in Ashulia as protests, clashes and acts of vandalism continued across several industrial belts.
The government suspects that elements with motives beyond workers’ demands have infiltrated the protests to create disorder and undermine public security.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said those engaging in violence in the name of the movement were pursuing other interests, insisting that the workers’ wage-board demand had already been addressed through the formation of a new board.
Speaking to journalists after a meeting with garment workers’ leaders at the Secretariat on Monday, he said workers had never blocked roads and highways over the formation of a wage board.
“We have seen that the masked people who have been arrested raised political slogans there,” he said.
BNP acting secretary general and Prime Minister’s political adviser Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also blamed defeated political forces for the unrest. He alleged that they were using false information to mobilise workers and create an unstable situation in the country.
Rizvi said police had arrested 11 Chhatra League and Jubo League activists at the scene of Sunday’s violence, alleging that one of them had been involved in provoking the unrest.
He also referred to a Facebook post in which one person had reportedly admitted to involvement, and said an organising secretary of Jagannath University Chhatra League had made a related post.
Police are investigating whether anyone is conspiring to provoke disorder, threaten public safety or damage state property in connection with the workers’ movement in Mirpur. DMP Joint Commissioner Mohidul Islam said investigators were trying to identify those involved in Sunday’s clashes and the attack on a police vehicle. Intelligence gathering and other police operations were continuing.
The unrest entered its fifth day on Monday, with workers taking to the streets in Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar and Ashulia over demands that the monthly minimum wage be raised to Tk30,000.
Clashes between workers and police left more than 150 people injured, while miscreants set fire to a covered van.
In Ashulia, bricks and stones were thrown at several factories, including Picard Bangladesh, Jonron Sweater, Ferrari Garments, Denitex, Unlima Textile, Al Islam Textile and GQ Industries.
An arson incident was also reported outside Artistic Design Limited, while 12 police officers were injured in clashes.
Ashulia Industrial Police Superintendent Momin Ul Islam Bhuiyan said outsiders and miscreants had joined the workers’ movement. He said additional police had been deployed and round-the-clock security would remain in place.
Legal action would be taken over the burning of the covered van, he added, while efforts were under way to identify and detain those responsible.
The situation also remained tense in Mirpur, where police and other law enforcement agencies were deployed from early Monday.
Riot-control vehicles and water cannons were kept ready around the Mirpur-10 roundabout. Police fired tear gas to disperse groups of workers attempting to take to the roads in Senpara Parbata and Rupnagar.
Five cases have been filed over the protests, arson, clashes and attacks on police in Mirpur, accusing 10,500 unnamed people.
Police have arrested 31 people in connection with the cases. Several have been sent to prison under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Explosive Substances Act and different provisions of the Penal Code.
Road blockades also disrupted traffic on the Dhaka-Tangail highway in Kaliakair, Gazipur, and the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road in Fatullah. Ten platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed in Gazipur, with 21 executive magistrates overseeing efforts to maintain law and order.
Meanwhile, the government has formed a six-member Minimum Wage Board to recommend revised pay for garment workers.
Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury announced the board on Sunday and urged workers to return to their factories, saying their demand for a wage board had been met.
The board, chaired by senior district and sessions judge Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman, includes representatives of factory owners and workers, the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation and two neutral members.
It will recommend minimum wages for all grades, after which the government will announce a new structure through a gazette notification.
The sector’s minimum wage was last fixed at Tk12,500 in December 2023. A recent amendment to the Labour Act reduced the interval for reviewing wages from five years to three, making a new wage board due in November.
