The Government of Bangladesh announced in September last year a rise in wages in the textile sector, which as it entered in 2019 increased its minimum wage by 51% to EUR 82.75. Since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013 and more than a thousand workers sewed clothing for multinationals, the first salary increase has been. However, understanding that the wage hike in force is fraudulent, textile workers took to the streets in early January in a way indignada.Exigiendo an increase in wages, led to a strike that lasted for almost two weeks.

In the face of this situation, the government promised a wage hike and the workers disconvened the strike. On 16 January, upon returning to the workplaces, it was known that some 750 workers had been dismissed. The number of redundancies has increased considerably: over 5,000 people are already dismissed in relation to the strike.

An official police officer informed EFE that between 15 and 27 January 4,899 workers were to be laid off, and they have done so. These layoffs have caused disturbances between police and workers, causing at least twenty injuries and one death at the scene of the accident. It is the second murder by police intervention around the conflicts in the textile industry, following the death of another person in the disturbances that led to the strike.

The vice-president of the Textile and Clothing Workers League, Morium Akhter, has told EFE that the layoffs are being used as a tactic to frighten the workers.