Police in Bangladesh disperse garment workers protesting since the weekend to demand better wages

The workers get 8,300 takas, or $75, as a monthly minimum wage and they often need to work overtime to make ends meet, labour unions and workers say.

Police in Bangladesh's capital on November 2 used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse more than 1,000 garment factory workers who took to the streets for a sixth straight day to demand better wages.

In the Gazipur industrial district, just outside Dhaka, thousands of others also protested amid frustration over higher commodity prices, rent and other bills. In both Dhaka and Gazipur, about 300 factories employing thousands of workers remained closed on Thursday, authorities said.

Bangladesh is the second largest garment-producing country in the world after China with its nearly 3,500 factories. Some 4 million workers are employed in them, most of them women, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, or BGMEA.

The workers get 8,300 takas, or $75, as a monthly minimum wage and they often need to work overtime to make ends meet, labour unions and workers say.

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Nazmul Hasan Firoz, additional deputy police commissioner at Pallabi in Dhaka's Mirpur area, said police dispersed the workers “peacefully” using tear gas as they blocked streets and vandalized some factories.

He declined to say whether anyone was injured in the action but that the protesters threw rocks at security officials who used armoured vehicles to roam the streets.