TRAFFIC in the Kuril area of Dhaka came to a halt on September 11 for more than four hours after apparel workers staged a blockade, demanding arrears and allowances. About 500–600 employees of Eurozone Fashion Garments gathered on the Kuril flyover around 3:00pm, occupying both the lanes that paralysed traffic on the busy Uttara–Badda–Rampura route. Within minutes, the standstill rippled out to adjacent arteries, with some 200 more workers obstructing both sides of the Airport Road, leaving vehicles trapped in a tailback stretching several kilometres. Passengers headed for the Dhaka airport reported severe delays while many were forced to leave buses and rickshaws to walk down. Social media feeds soon filled with complaints from the stranded, some saying that they had been stationary for hours. Police officials confirmed that the protests had also blocked the entrance to the Elevated Expressway, compounding congestion in surrounding neighbourhoods. The blockade was lifted around 7:30pm, restoring traffic flow, but questions lingered as the same factory workers had staged an almost identical protest on September 3 over the same set of dues.
The recurrence of such blockades reflects more than a single factory’s mismanagement. It exposes structural weaknesses in wage and enforcement mechanisms in the export-oriented apparel sector. Despite the existence of a minimum wage board and statutory obligations on timely payment, a culture of deferment and opacity persists, leaving workers with little recourse other than street protests. Employers often cite liquidity constraints, cancelled orders or production lulls. Yet, the arguments rarely justify arrears spanning months or the withholding of allowances. Oversight agencies remain slow to act, inspections are infrequent and penalties for non-compliance are too light to deter repetition. Industry bodies, quick to warn of reputational risks abroad, tend to negotiate only after disruptions occur, instead of ensuring preventive discipline among members. Government initiatives to digitise wage payments and strengthen labour inspection have shown promise, but their coverage is still uneven, especially in small or subcontracting units. Without binding timelines for wage payment, credible sanctions and an empowered inspection force, arrears will continue to accumulate and workers will continue to see public roads as their only bargaining space. A sustainable solution demands coordinated pressure — regulatory, financial and ethical — on owners to honour contracts on time.
Authorities and factory owners can no longer treat arrears as negotiable or delay as acceptable. Immediate, uncompromising action is required. Overdue wages must be paid, accountability enforced and a system built that finally respects the labour that powers the economy. Only by addressing arrears swiftly and humanely can such crippling disruptions be brought to an end.
