GAZIPUR: Up to 25,000 garment workers clashed with police in Bangladesh on Thursday, officials said, as protests rejecting a government-offered pay rise forced the closure of at least 100 factories outside Dhaka.

A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 per cent for the South Asian nation’s four million garment factory workers, who are seeking a near-tripling of their monthly wage.Police said violence broke out in the industrial towns of Gazipur and Ashulia outside the capital after more than 10,000 workers staged protests in factories and along highways to reject the panel’s offer.

“There were 10,000 (protesting) workers at several spots. They threw bricks and stones at our officers and factories, which were open,” Mahmud Naser, Ashulia’s deputy industrial police chief, said.

“One of our officers was injured. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the workers,” Naser said. He said more than 100 factories were shut down in Ashulia and surrounding areas.

Nobel laureate Yunus rejects labour law charges

Thousands of workers also clashed with the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police at Konabari and Naujore in Gazipur, with police using batons and tear gas to drive them into alleys, correspondents at the scene said.

“Some 15,000 workers blocked the road at Konabari, and vandalised vehicles and other properties. We had to disperse them to maintain law and order,” Gazipur municipality administrator Sayed Murad Ali said. At least two injured workers were taken to hospital, police said.

The workers are seeking a wage rise to 23,000 taka and unions representing them have rejected the panel’s increase as “farcical”. Police say at least three workers have been killed since the wage protests broke out in key industrial towns last week, including a 23-year-old woman shot dead on Wednesday. At least six police officers have also been injured in the protests.The United States has condemned violence against protesting Bangladeshi garment workers and “the criminalisation of legitimate worker and trade union activities”.

In a statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged the panel “to revisit the minimum wage decision to ensure that it addresses the growing economic pressures faced by workers and their families”.

Thea Lee, the US Department of Labor’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs, called for the release of BIGWUF organiser Miya. The Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign, a textile workers’ rights group, has also dismissed the new pay level as a “poverty wage”. The minimum wage is fixed by a state-appointed board that includes representatives from the manu­facturers, unions and wage experts.

Separately, Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus appeared in court on Thursday to deny all charges in a labour dispute case his lawyers said is a government campaign to “harass” him.

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering micro-credit bank but he has fallen out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

He appeared in the dock in the crowded court in the capital Dhaka, denying all charges in a case in which he faces up to six months in jail if found guilty.Yunus is facing around 175 separate criminal and labour tribunal cases related to social business firms he set up in Bangladesh aimed at creating jobs and bringing services to the poor.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2023