Bangladesh garment workers protest over unpaid wages, demand higher salaries: Report

Garment workers in Bangladesh staged protests over unpaid salaries, higher wages and other benefits on Thursday, blocking major highways in Dhaka and Gazipur districts and disrupting traffic, according to local media reports.

Police used batons and sound grenades to disperse workers blocking the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in the Uttara area of the capital, the fourth day of the ongoing protests, The Daily Star reported.

Workers from several garment factories gathered in the Azampur and Rajlokkhi areas of Uttara, a Dhaka suburb, demanding higher wages, payment of outstanding salaries and other benefits. They said rising prices of essential goods had made it increasingly difficult to make ends meet on their current wages and alleged that repeated appeals to the authorities had failed to resolve their grievances.

Some protesters demanded a minimum basic monthly salary of 30,000 taka.

Police attempted to persuade the protesters to clear the road around 12.15 pm. While one group agreed to withdraw, another attempted to throw bricks and stones at officers, prompting police to chase them away, The Daily Star quoted Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Rezaul Karim as saying.

Uttara West police station chief Khalid Mansur told Prothom Alo that officers used sound grenades after workers refused to leave the road despite repeated requests. Traffic resumed at 12.15 pm, the newspaper reported.

The blockade caused severe traffic congestion, forcing many commuters and pedestrians to walk to their destinations, Prothom Alo reported.

In a separate incident, more than 1,000 workers at C-Stage (BD) Ltd blocked a highway in Sreepur, in Gazipur district, demanding payment of their September wages.

The workers arrived at the factory on Thursday morning but found that a general holiday had been declared, despite repeated promises to pay their outstanding wages, The Daily Star reported.

They blocked the highway around 9 am, triggering traffic congestion that stretched for several kilometres. Industrial police used sound grenades to disperse the protesters, and traffic returned to normal after about an hour, the newspaper reported, citing Mawna Highway Police Station chief Md Kamruzzaman.

Bangladesh's garment industry has around 4,000 registered factories and employs more than four million workers, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

The country is the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China, with garment exports reaching USD 38.70 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, according to the BGMEA. Its garments are exported to more than 150 countries.