| Date | Factories affected | Source of the count |
|---|
| Nov. 1 | 529 of 2,134 | BGMEA situation report via The Daily Star |
| Nov. 2 | about 500 to 800 | Al Jazeera, Reuters, BGMEA via Arab News |
| Nov. 3 (Ashulia only) | at least 70 | Ashulia Industrial Police via The Daily Star |
","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"The counts use different methods. The BGMEA figure covers members only and counts any disruption, not just closures. The Nov. 3 figure covers one industrial area and only factories that formally declared a holiday. None of them is a national total.\n\n## The wage dispute\n\nBangladesh sets a separate minimum wage for the garment sector through a tripartite board with government, employer and worker members. The current floor of 12,500 taka a month took effect in December 2023, after a board process that began with a worker demand of 23,000 taka and a worker representative's formal proposal of 20,393 taka, according to Just Style and contemporaneous reporting in [The Financial Express](https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/wage-protests-spread-fast-in-dhaka-gazipur-garment-belts). The 2023 round was also violent. At least two workers died, by BGMEA's own count at the time, and unions demanded compensation for the family of one of them, Rasel Hawlader.\n\nThis year's demand of 30,000 taka is 2.4 times the current floor. The IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, a grouping of garment union federations, had earlier asked for 32,085 taka, Just Style reported. Workers in the street have also demanded an end to blacklisting and the reinstatement of dismissed colleagues, The Daily Star reported.\n\nThe timing is itself disputed. Bangladesh's labor law long required a new wage board every five years, which would put the next review in 2028. Unions say a 2026 amendment shortened the cycle to three years, making a new wage due by December 2026, [The Financial Express reported in August](https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/garment-unions-push-for-urgent-minimum-wage-revision). Mohammad Hatem, president of the knitwear makers' association BKMEA, told the paper that a law cannot apply retroactively and that the board is due in 2028 either way. The government's decision to form a board now has, in practice, settled the question in the unions' favor.\n\nThe board announced on Nov. 1 has six members. The Daily Star, cited by Just Style, named Professor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed of Dhaka University as the independent member; Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, is the workers' representative, according to Al Jazeera. BGMEA's Samad said a concrete proposal \"will take some time\" and that past rounds took about three months.\n\n## What the official data say about prices and pay\n\nThe workers' case rests on living costs, and official statistics support the direction of their claim while leaving the size of a fair increase open. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics reported point-to-point inflation of 8.34% in September 2026, up from 8.26% in August, with food inflation at 7.22% and non-food inflation at 9.30%, according to [bdnews24's account of the Oct. 7 release](https://bdnews24.com/economy/hotvno31ay). The same release put the national wage growth rate at 7.9%, below inflation for the month. Bangladesh Bank's [monetary policy statement for October to December 2026](https://www.bb.org.bd/monetaryactivity/mps/mps_q2fy27.pdf) describes the August figure as a 10-month low and keeps the policy rate at 9.5%; it also notes \"subdued global demand for garments.\"\n\n**Bangladesh inflation and wage growth, August and September 2026**\n\nPoint-to-point percentage change from a year earlier, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, as reported by bdnews24. The wage index covers all sectors, not garment workers alone.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"