The government has formed a six-member wage board to review wages for readymade garment workers amid widespread protests across Dhaka and its outskirts, with workers demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000.

Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Hoque Choudhury announced the formation of the board and the names of its members at a press conference at his secretariat office in Dhaka on Sunday.

ABM Shamsuddin, a director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, and Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation, have been appointed as temporary representatives of factory owners and workers respectively.

The board is headed by Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman, with Dhaka University professor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed as another member.

Its two permanent representatives are Asif Ayub, joint secretary of the Bangladesh Employers Federation, representing factory owners, and Anwar Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, representing workers.

The labour minister urged protesting workers to return to work, saying that the formation of the wage board had paved the way for reviewing their wages.

He also called on the board to recommend an enhanced wage structure as soon as possible.

Minister alleged that a vested political quarter was exploiting labour-related issues to create deliberate instability in the industrial sector and destabilise the government.

Meanwhile, hundreds of garment workers took to the streets in Mirpur and Gazipur on Sunday, blocking roads and disrupting traffic as they pressed for their demand for a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000.

In Dhaka, workers blocked the Mirpur-10 intersection and the road between Mirpur-10 and Mirpur-11, including the area near Purabi Cinema Hall.

Clashes and chases and counter-chases broke out between protesters and law enforcement personnel in the Mirpur-10 and Mirpur-11 areas. Police used sound grenades to disperse the demonstrators.

In Gazipur, workers blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway in Kaliakair at around 8:30am, bringing traffic in both directions to a halt.

Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed in Gazipur to maintain law and order after a group of protesting workers set fire to a police box in the Konabari area of Gazipur Metropolitan City.