Bangladesh Workers' Wage Protest Enters Fourth Day

2nd Aug 2010 11:32

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP)--Bangladesh garment workers blocked roads and attacked factories Monday as protests over a new minimum wage spilled into a fourth day. About 10,000 workers in Fatullah, south of the capital, Dhaka, pelted police with rocks as they demanded a minimum monthly wage of BDT5,000 ($72), rejecting a BDT3,000 deal offered by the government last week. "They attacked factories, set up barricades in the road--we had to use tear gas and batons to disperse the workers," district police chief Biswas Afzal Hossain said. The government said last Tuesday that the minimum monthly wage for garment workers would rise to BDT3,000 from BDT1,662, but the new wage won't be implemented until November. Some major unions have accepted the 80% hike, but a string of smaller unions have rejected the deal. Violence had erupted in Dhaka on Friday with workers blocking roads, vandalizing factories and shops and looting goods. The violence spread to manufacturing hubs around the capital, including the Ashulia export zone, which produces clothes for major Western brands like Tesco (TSCDY), Marks and Spencer (MAKSY), H&M (HM-B.SK) and Wal-Mart (WMT). "The demand for a 5,000 taka monthly minimum pay is unrealistic," government labor secretary Nurul Haq said on Monday, adding that all major unions have accepted the new pay rise. But Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, head of a garment union, said that the new minimum wage was "derisory." Garments account for 80% of Bangladesh's annual exports. (END) Dow Jones Newswires August 02, 2010 06:32 ET (10:32 GMT)