Bangladesh’s latest garment-worker unrest is more than a dispute over wages. It is a reminder that responsible business conduct cannot be achieved by one actor in a global supply chain.
Workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000, compared with the current Tk 12,500 minimum. On November 1, the government formed a six-member wage board to review garment workers’ pay as protests continued in major industrial areas. The unrest has disrupted factories, transport and production.
The violence surrounding some of the protests is equally concerning. Police and workers clashed in Mirpur, a police vehicle was set on fire, and emergency responders were placed in danger. A Fire Service vehicle responding to the fire was reportedly attacked with bricks and stones. Such actions cannot be justified. The right to demand better wages does not extend to violence, vandalism or attacks on emergency personnel. But the wider wage question deserves a more careful conversation.
Responsible business is a shared supply-chain responsibility
Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) has become an increasingly important part of global fashion. Yet responsibility cannot end with a supplier code of conduct, an audit or a compliance certificate. A garment supply chain is a partnership.
Factories manufacture according to buyers’ specifications, prices, volumes and timelines. Brands and buyers depend on suppliers for quality, capacity and delivery. Workers depend on the industry for their livelihoods.
Therefore, if brands make commitments on human rights and living wages, those commitments must be reflected not only in sustainability policies but also in the commercial decisions that shape supplier operations.
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Recent evidence makes this increasingly difficult to overlook.
The 2026 Fashion Checker found that 32% of 110 brands assessed had made a public living-wage commitment, but only 4% reported tangible progress. Only 3% disclosed wage levels at their supply-chain facilities, while workers surveyed in Bangladesh were reported to earn 73% below the cited living-wage benchmark.
These findings should not be interpreted as evidence that every brand is failing. There is also measurable progress.
ACT’s 2025 monitoring report found advances among participating brands in areas including sourcing strategy, responsible exits, labour costing and planning. But suppliers continued to identify price negotiation, forecasting, capacity planning, buyer-supplier relationships and payment terms as important purchasing practices affecting wage outcomes. ACT also found areas where supplier experience did not fully match corporate reporting.
The Fair Labor Association’s latest Bangladesh living-wage studies, published October 26, provide another important perspective. Across four factories studied, average workers did not reach estimated living-wage levels, even with overtime. FLA recommends that buyers incorporate the real cost of labour into pricing negotiations, maintain long-term supplier relationships and ensure purchasing and sustainability teams work together on living-wage commitments.
This is where responsible business conduct must move from principle to practice.
The purchasing decision matters
A brand may have a strong human-rights policy. But if its purchasing decisions do not allow suppliers to absorb legitimate increases in labour costs, the policy becomes difficult to translate into outcomes on the factory floor.
Responsible sourcing therefore requires responsible purchasing.
That means asking whether prices reflect rising labour costs, whether production forecasts and lead times are realistic, whether payment terms support supplier stability, and whether sustainability commitments are understood and implemented by the teams negotiating orders.
FLA’s broader Bangladesh research similarly recommends transparent costing, incorporating living-wage costs into production prices, stronger buyer-supplier dialogue and greater coordination between purchasing and sustainability teams.
This is not about assigning all responsibility to brands.
Governments must establish credible wage-setting and enforcement mechanisms. Factory owners must comply with labour laws and engage meaningfully with workers. Workers and their representatives must pursue legitimate demands peacefully. And brands and buyers must ensure that their commercial practices are consistent with their human-rights commitments.
Responsibility is shared—but it is also interconnected.
Bangladesh remains a strategic sourcing partner
Bangladesh’s apparel industry is deeply embedded in global fashion. The sector employs around four million people, generates more than 80% of the country’s export earnings, and remains one of the world’s major apparel sourcing hubs.
Its scale, manufacturing capabilities, supplier ecosystem, workforce and decades of relationships with international brands make Bangladesh strategically important to global fashion.
The question, therefore, should not simply be whether brands will continue sourcing from Bangladesh.
The more important question is how brands and suppliers can make that sourcing relationship stronger, more resilient and more responsible for the long term.
Bangladesh’s competitiveness should not be measured by how little workers can be paid.
It should be measured by how sustainably the entire apparel ecosystem can grow.
From commitment to partnership
The current wage debate offers the industry an opportunity to move beyond commitments on paper.
Brands, buyers, manufacturers, workers and policymakers need a model in which competitiveness, decent wages and supplier resilience can coexist.
That requires more than audits. It requires dialogue, transparent costing, responsible purchasing, predictable business relationships, meaningful worker participation and a willingness to recognise that commercial decisions have social consequences.
Bangladesh does not need a charity-based relationship with global fashion.
It needs a responsible commercial partnership.
And global fashion does not need to choose between Bangladesh’s competitiveness and better working conditions.
The real opportunity is to build a supply chain where both are sustainable.