Dhaka: Garment workers in Bangladesh have been protesting over higher wages and unpaid salaries, blocking a major highway in the capital city of Dhaka, according to local media reports. Police used batons and sound grenades to disperse workers blocking the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in the Uttara area on Thursday, the fourth day of the ongoing protests, The Daily Star newspaper reported.
Bangladesh's garment industry has around 4,000 registered factories and employs more than four million workers, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). Bangladesh is the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China, with garment exports reaching USD 38.70 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, according to the BGMEA. Its garments are exported to more than 150 countries.
Workers from several garment factories gathered on Thursday in the Azampur and Rajlokkhi areas of Uttara, a Dhaka suburb, demanding higher wages, payment of outstanding salaries and other benefits, The Daily Star reported.
The protesters said rising prices of essential goods had made it increasingly difficult to make ends meet on their current wages. They also alleged that repeated appeals to the authorities had failed to resolve their grievances. Some workers demanded a minimum basic monthly salary of 30,000 taka.
Police attempted to persuade the protesters to leave the road around 12.15 pm. One group agreed to withdraw, but another attempted to throw bricks and stones at officers, prompting police to chase them away, the newspaper quoted Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Rezaul Karim as saying.
Uttara West police station chief Khalid Mansur told Prothom Alo newspaper that officers used sound grenades after workers refused to leave the road despite requests. Traffic resumed at 12.15 pm, the newspaper reported.
The blockade caused severe traffic congestion, with many commuters and pedestrians forced to walk to their destinations, Prothom Alo reported. Separately, more than 1,000 workers at C-Stage (BD) Ltd blocked a highway in Sreepur, in Gazipur district, demanding payment of their September wages.
The workers had gone to the factory on Thursday morning but found that a general holiday had been declared, despite repeated promises to pay their outstanding wages, The Daily Star reported.
They blocked the highway around 9 am, causing traffic congestion that stretched for several kilometres. Industrial police used sound grenades to disperse them, and traffic returned to normal after about an hour, the newspaper reported, citing Mawna Highway Police Station chief Md Kamruzzaman.