Following weeks of protests, Beximco Industrial Park authority announced the clearance of all overdue wages for October on Monday. The decision comes after workers had initiated protests on 14th November, demanding the payment of their salaries.
To address the labour unrest at Beximco Ltd, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in collaboration with the Finance Division, provided financial assistance aimed at settling the outstanding payments. On Thursday evening, many workers received text messages confirming the payment of their wages, leading to a return to normalcy on Friday and Saturday. However, some workers who had not received notification blocked roads again on Sunday evening, expressing their frustration.
On Monday, however, Beximco confirmed that all remaining overdue wages had been paid.
Meanwhile, in response to the unrest, the Government established an advisory council committee to review the labour and business conditions at Beximco Industrial Park. The committee, chaired by Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain and including members from the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Labour and Employment, is tasked with developing recommendations for immediate and long-term solutions to address workers’ grievances.
Despite the situation at Beximco, manufacturers of ready-made garments (RMG) reported smooth operations across major industrial hubs. Factories in Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, and Dhaka were operating at full capacity. On Monday, only Beximco factories in Gazipur were affected as workers protested over their unpaid October wages, blocking the Chandra-Nabinagar highway until 4:30 PM.
Overall, operations remained strong in the industry, with 99.75 per cent of the factories in Savar and Ashulia functioning normally, and all 870 factories in Gazipur operational. Nationally, 99.95 per cent of 2,093 factories were also reported to be running without incidents.
