Garment workers and activists take part in a protest in Dhaka on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. Police fired tear gas at thousands of workers who set a bus on fire outside Bangladesh's capital on November 7, with tensions are rising ahead of a new minimum wage announcement for millions of garment labourers. - AFP
MOSCOW, Nov 7 (Bernama-Sputnik): Garment workers in Bangladesh, who produce clothes for a number of well-known brands, including Asos, New Look and Inditex, which owns Zara, are demanding a pay raise amid fears of imminent starvation, Sputnik quoted UK newspaper The Guardian report on Tuesday.
Since last week, garment workers in Dhaka have been protesting for a new minimum wage of 23,000 taka (US$207.8) per month, saying it is the least amount to cover basic living costs, the newspaper reported. Meanwhile, factory owners have proposed to the government an increase to just 10,400 taka a month.
The protesters told The Guardian that a wage of less than 23,000 taka would condemn them to starvation.
"To us, it is clear that there are huge profits being made on our backs. Even the 23,000 taka we are asking for wouldn't be enough, but it would offer some kind of relief," one of the protesters was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Another protester, Rojina Akter, said there were multiple times she had to "sneak into fields" on her way home "to hunt for vegetables to feed" her children, adding that "starvation is next", the newspaper reported.
Bangladeshi Labour and Employment State Minister Monnujan Sufian reportedly said that the government was now considering the garment workers' requests for ration cards to help them avoid starvation.
Some fashion brands that use the labour of Bangladeshi manufacturers expressed support for the wage increase, but local labour rights groups argued that the brands themselves would have to increase payments for their garment orders to make the wage increase possible. - Bernama-Sputnik
