Bangladesh's garment industry — the world's second-largest apparel exporter — faces a deepening credibility crisis over labour reforms, with a new report warning that the newly elected government could face major worker unrest if systemic change, including a higher minimum wage and explicit protections against forced labour, fails to materialise beyond legislative paperwork.

New Law, Old Doubts

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, headed by Tarique Rahman, passed the Bangladesh Labor (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in April 2026, widely described as a historic milestone for workers' rights. The legislation seeks to strengthen workers' rights to organise and clarifies provisions on layoffs and wage calculations. Yet critics argue the law leaves critical gaps — notably, 'explicit protections against forced labour and modern slavery are not yet addressed,' according to the report published in WWD.com.

Enforcement: The Persistent Hurdle

Analysts and labour advocates stress that the impact of any reform depends entirely on rigorous enforcement — and Bangladesh has a weak track record in this regard. The report notes that some government regulatory initiatives rely on corporate consensus, effectively giving global brands a veto over enforceable penalties. This dynamic, critics argue, traps accountability mechanisms 'in a loop of managing paperwork instead of driving real change.'

Genuine accountability, the report contends, requires moving away from business-as-usual compliance frameworks altogether — a structural shift that neither the previous interim government nor the current administration has yet demonstrated the will to pursue.

Missed Opportunity Under Yunus Interim Government

Fresh expectations for substantive reform had emerged when a Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus-led interim government took charge. However, the report indicates that no meaningful systemic change was achieved during his tenure, leaving workers in the same precarious conditions that have long characterised the sector. Earlier studies have highlighted 'precarious conditions and women workers' vulnerabilities' in economic, job, food, and housing security within Bangladeshi garment factories.

The Brand Accountability Problem

A second systemic issue compounds the enforcement challenge: the unfair purchasing practices of global apparel brands. By squeezing supplier margins, international brands directly undermine the financial headroom factories need to raise wages and improve conditions. The report argues that transparency and worker agency cannot advance in isolation from how global buyers structure their sourcing contracts — a dimension the new law does not address.

What Comes Next

The government's response will be a decisive indicator of whether it prioritises cost competitiveness for global brands or the dignity and security of the 4 million-plus workers — the majority of them women — employed in the sector. Without credible enforcement mechanisms and a meaningful increase in the minimum wage relative to rising living costs, labour experts warn that large-scale worker protests in the garment sector and beyond remain a real possibility.