Key facts
- Workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka, or £182, versus the current 12,500 taka.
- The garment industry generates nearly $40bn in exports a year and accounts for 10% of Bangladesh's GDP.
- Police Supt Mohammad Amjad Hossain said 13 factories closed on Saturday night and 16 were closed during morning unrest.
- A government minimum wage board formed on November 1 said it would finalise recommendations by the end of November.
Dozens of factories in Bangladesh's main clothes-producing area were shut by workers striking over a higher minimum wage, with nearly 150 sites across the country closed in the textile hubs of Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur over the weekend.
Workers are demanding a minimum wage of 30,000 taka, or £182, a month. The current minimum monthly wage is 12,500 taka, which employees say is not enough to cope with the cost of living.
On Sunday morning, workers massed on the Dhaka-Tangail highway in Gazipur to block the road. Traffic was stopped by the protests for about an hour before police stepped in, the BBC reported.
Police Supt Mohammad Amjad Hossain told the BBC that officers shut factories in the city after the workers walked out. He said 13 factories were closed on Saturday night and "sixteen factories were closed during the morning unrest."
The garment industry generates nearly $40bn in exports every year and makes up 10% of the country's total GDP. It employs about four million workers making clothes for brands including H&M, Primark and Zara. Bangladesh is the world's second largest exporter of ready-to-wear clothes after China.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) called for protection for factories. BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan said: "Garment factories that have been unable to continue production due to the ongoing unrest will remain indefinitely closed from tomorrow under... Bangladesh's labour law."
On 1 November, the government formed a minimum wage board chaired by a senior district judge to recommend a revised pay structure. The board said at its first meeting it would finalise any recommendations by the end of November, and the revised structure is expected to take effect from 1 December.