United News of Bangladesh

The government has formed a six-member wage board to review the minimum wage structure for garment workers amid protests across industrial areas, including Dhaka and Gazipur, demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000. Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury announced the formation of the board at a press briefing at his ministry on Sunday and urged the protesting workers to return to work instead of taking to the streets. The ministry also issued separate gazette notifications on the formation of the minimum wage board for garment workers on Sunday. The board has been constituted under Section 138 of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 (amended in 2026), with the mandate to determine the minimum wage for workers in the garment industry under Section 139 of the law. Senior District and Sessions Judge Sheikh Ashfakur Rahman has been appointed chairman of the board. Prof Dr Mosleh Uddin Ahmed of the Department of Public Administration at Dhaka University has been appointed as its neutral member. As general representatives, Asif Ayub, joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Employers Federation, has been appointed as the employers' representative, while Anwar Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, will represent workers. The board will also have two representatives from the garment industry: ABM Shamsuddin, a director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), will represent employers, while Babul Akhtar, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), will represent workers. The formation of the wage board comes as garment workers have been staging demonstrations and blocking roads in different industrial areas, demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000. On Sunday, workers blocked the Mirpur-10 intersection in Dhaka and several points of the Dhaka-Tangail Highway in Gazipur, disrupting traffic. Clashes between workers and police in Gazipur also prompted authorities to close most factories in the affected areas.