Many hurt in Bangladesh garment workers protest

DHAKA, Oct 10 (Reuters) Nearly 200 people were injured in clashes between Bangladesh police and garment workers in Dhaka today, witnesses and police said.

The clashes erupted when police tried to disperse thousands of workers blocking streets and damaging stranded vehicles in Mirpur area.

Police used batons and fired teargas shells while angry workers threw stones. Police detained at least 20 people.

Several garments factories, where authorities tried to resist the strike, were vandalised and property, including machinery, was damaged.

Workers set a public bus on fire on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Violence was also reported from several industrial areas housing garment factories.

The workers boycotted work and took to the streets in protest against a recently announced wage structure for garment workers.

Authorities fixed a minimum monthly wage for textile workers at 1,662 taka but trade unions demanded a minimum wage of 3,000 taka per month and called the strike in protest.

Currently, garment workers earn a minimum monthly wage of 950 taka, a third of a farm labourer.

The garments sector is Bangladesh's biggest export earner, fetching some seven billion dollars in the fiscal year to June 2006, commerce ministry officials said.

It is also the country's second biggest employer after agriculture, with about 4,000 factories employing about two million workers, many of whom toil in dangerous conditions.

REUTERS BDP BST1426