All legal cases against workers dropped
Months of campaigning targeting brands sourcing from factories which filed cases against workers in the wake of the 2023 protests led to twelve cases being dropped by the complainants. Yet several thousands workers remained under threat of legal action. In August 2025, the Bangladesh Home Ministry ordered the withdrawal of thousands of politically motivated legal […]
International campaign against worker repression
Many months after the 2023 wage protests, 40,000 workers continued to face arbitrary charges that could lead to lengthy prison sentences, including life imprisonment. The largely baseless charges were dating from before the July revolution, but still hanging over workers’ heads. Some workers were charged based on acts that took place far away from their […]
Minimum wage set at 12,500 BDT
Murder of Shahidul Islam
Increased unon busting during the pandemic
Wage protests and crackdown
Wage protest crackdown
Amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Law
Rana Plaza collapse
On 23 April 2013 large structural cracks were discovered in the Rana Plaza building. The shops and the bank on the lower floors immediately closed. But warnings to avoid using the building after the cracks appeared were ignored by the garment factory owners of five factories on the upper floors.
Garment workers were ordered to return to work the following day. If there would have been unions in the five factories in the building who could have collectively voiced the right to refuse unsafe work. If workers would not have been earning poverty wages, they might not have chosen to enter the factory over the threat to lose one month of wages. Poverty wages, lack of freedom of association and on some cases actual violence meant workers felt forced to enter an unsafe building.
The building collapsed just an hour later, killing 1,138 people. The incident could have been entirely avoidable.
Murder of Aminul Islam
