The history of the Readymade Garments Sector in Bangladesh is a fairly recent one. Nonetheless it is a rich and varied tale. The recent struggle to realize Workers' Rights adds an important episode to the story.
The RMG industry of Bangladesh has expanded dramatically
over the last three decades. Traditionally, the jute industry dominated the
industrial sector of the country until the 1970s. Since the early 1980s, the
RMG industry has emerged as an important player in the economy of the country
and has gradually replaced the jute industry.
Bangladesh exports 35 types of garment products to about 31
countries around the world. The RMG sector is a 100% export-oriented industry.
That Bangladesh today is considered an economic competitor
in terms of international garment manufacturing by other countries of the
region and beyond is the country since gaining independence in 1971. it appers
much of the socio-economic development in the first decade of the twenty-first
century for Bangladesh and its approximately 1.5 million women workers depends
on the continuing success of the RMG industry.
Problems surrounding readymade garments sector:
1. Raw materials
Bangladesh imports raw materials for garments like cotton,
thread color etc. This dependence on raw materials hampers the development of
garments industry. Moreover, foreign suppliers often supply low quality
materials, which result in low quality products
2. Unskilled workers:
Most of the illiterate women workers employed in garments
are unskilled and so their products often become lower in quality.
3. Improper working environment:
Taking the advantages of workers' poverty and ignorance the
owners forced them to work in unsafe and unhealthy work place overcrowded with
workers beyond capacity of the factory floor and improper ventilation.
Most of the garment factories in our country lack the basic
amenities where our garment workers sweat their brows from morning to evening
to earn our countries the major portion of our foreign exchange. Anybody
visiting the factory the first impression he or she will have that these
workers are in a roost.
Improper ventilation, stuffy situation, filthy rooms are the
characteristics of the majority of our factories. The owners profit are the
first priority and this attitude has gone to such an extent that they do not
care about their lives.
3. Lack of managerial knowledge:
There are some other problems which are associated with this
sector. Those are- lack of marketing tactics, absence of easily on-hand middle
management, a small number of manufacturing methods, lack of training
organizations for industrial workers, supervisors and managers, autocratic
approach of nearly all the investors, fewer process units for textiles and
garments, sluggish backward or forward blending procedure, incompetent ports,
entry/exit complicated and loading/unloading takes much time, time-consuming
custom clearance etc.
4. Gendered division of labor:
In the garment industry in Bangladesh, tasks are allocated
largely on the basis of gender. This determines many of the working conditions
of women workers. All the workers in the sewing section are women, while almost
all those in the cutting, ironing and finishing sections are men. Women workers
are absorbed in a variety of occupations from cutting, sewing, inserting
buttons, making button holes, checking,cleaning the threads, ironing, folding,
packing and training to supervising.
Women work mainly as helpers, machinists and less
frequently, as line supervisors and quality controllers. There are no female
cutting masters. Men dominate the administrative and management level jobs.
Women are discriminated against in terms of access to higher-paid white collar
and management positions.
When asked why they prefer to emply women foe sewing, the
owner and managers gave several reasons. Most felt that sewing is traditionally
done by women and that women are more patient and more controllable than men.
5. Wages:
The government of Bangladesh sets minimum wages for various
categories of workers. According of Minimum Wage Ordinance 1994, apprentices’
helpers are to receive Tk500 and Tk930 per month respectively. Apprentices are
helpers who have been working in the garment industry for less than three
months. After three months, Apprentices are appointed as helpers. Often female
helpers are discriminated against in terms of wages levels, and these wages are
also often fixed far below the minimum wage rate. A survey conducted in 1998
showed that 73% of female helpers, as opposed to 15% of their male
counterparts, did not receive even the minimum wage.
6. Insufficient of loan:
Insufficiency of loan in time, uncertainly of electricity,
delay in getting materials, lack of communication, problem in taxes etc. Often
obstruct the industry. In the world market 115 to 120 items of dress are in
demand where as Bangladesh supplies only ten to twelve items of garments.
India, south Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan etc, have made
remarkable progress in garments industries. Bangladesh is going to challenge
the garments of those countries in the world market.
7. Unit labor cost:
Bangladesh has the cheapest unit labor cost in South Asia.
It costs only 11 cents to produce a shirt in Bangladesh, whereas it costs 79
cents in Sri Lanka and 26 cents in India. Clearly, Bangladesh’s comparative
advantage lies in having the cheapest unit labor cost.
8. Working hours:
Though the wages are low, the working hours are very long.
The RMG factories claim to operate one eight-hour shift six days a week. The
1965 factory Act allows women to work delivery deadlines; however, women are
virtually compelled to work after 8 o’clock. Sometimes they work until 3
o’clock in the morning and report back to start work again five hours later ar
8 o’clock. They are asked to work whole months at a time the Factory Act, which
stipulates that no employee should work more than ten days consecutively
without a break.
9. Poor accommodation facilities:
As most of the garment workers come from the poor family and
comes from the remote areas and they have to attend to the duties on time,
these workers have to hire a room near the factory where four to five huddle in
a room and spend life in sub human condition.
For four to five workers there is one common latrine and a
kitchen for which they have to pay from Tk=2000 to Tk=2500/-.They share this
amount among themselves to minimize the accommodation expense.
One cannot believe their eyes in what horrible condition
they have to pass out their time after almost whole day of hard work in the
factory. After laborious job they come into their roost, cook their food and
have their dinner or lunch in unhygienic floor or bed and sleep where they take
their food. They share the single bed or sleep on the floor.
The owners of these factories must not treat the workers as
animals. The owners of these factories who drive the most luxurious car and
live in most luxurious house do ever think that these are the workers who have
made their living so juicy. Will these selfish owners ever think of these
workers of their better living for the sake of humanity by providing better
accommodation for these workers in addition to providing with the job.
10. Safety Problems:
Because of the carelessness of the factory management and
for their arrogance factory doors used to be kept locked for security reason
defying act
Safety need for the worker is mandatory to maintain in all
the organization. But without the facility of this necessary product a lot of
accident is occur incurred every year in most of the company. Some important
cause of the accident are given below-
● Routes are blocked by storage materials
● Machine layout is often staggered
● Lack of signage for escape route
● No provision for emergency lighting
● Doors, opening along escape routes, are not fire resistant
● Doors are not self-closing and often do not open along the
direction of escape
● Adequate doors as
well as adequate staircases are not provided to aid quick exit
● Fire exit or emergency staircase lacks proper maintenance
● Lack of proper exit route to reach the place of safety
● Parked vehicles, goods and rubbish on the outside of the
building obstruct exits to the open air
● Fire in a Bangladesh factory is likely to spread quickly
because the principle of compartmentalization is practiced
10. Political crisis:
Garments industries often pay dearly for political unrest,
hartal and terrorism etc.
The international market has withdrawn quota advantage over
garments export form Bangladesh since December 2005.
Bangladesh has to advance cautiously for getting better
position of her garments in the world market. Finally destruction of twin tower
in 11 September 2001. invasion on Afghanistan and Iraq and depression in world
Economy have seriously affected the export trade of Bangladesh.
11. Price competitiveness:
China and some other competitors of Bangladesh have
implemented sharp price-cutting policies in exporting garment products over the
last few years, but Bangladesh has failed to respond effectively to such
policies. China was able to drop the export price of 29 garment categories by
46 per cent on average in the United States within a year, from $6.23 per sq
metre in December 2001 to $3.37 per sq metre in December 2002. Bangladesh needs
to respond to such price-cutting policies of its rivals in order to remain
competitive in the quota-free global market.
12. Lead time
Lead time refers to the time required for supplying the
ordered garment products after the export order has been received.
In the 1980s, the usual lead time in the garment industry
was 120-150 days for the main garment supplier countries of the world; it has
been reduced to 30-40 days in the current decade.
However, in this regard the Bangladesh RMG industry has
improved little; for example, the average lead time is 90-120 days for woven
garment firms and 60-80 days for knit garment firms. In China, the average lead
time is 40-60 days and 50-60 days for woven and knit products respectively; in
India, it is 50-70 days and 60-70 days for the same products respectively.
Bangladesh should improve its average lead time to compete
in the international market.
Conclusion:
The Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry occupies a unique
position in the Bangladesh economy. It is the largest exporting industry in
Bangladesh, which experienced phenomenal growth during the last 25 years.
Given the remarkable entrepreneurial initiatives and the
dedication of its workforce, Bangladesh can look forward to advancing its share
of the global RMG market.
Author's note: 1. Labour and Management in Development
Journal Vol 2, 2.Competitiveness of the Bangladesh
Ready-made Garment Industry in Major International Markets by Mohammed Ziaul
Haider,
Keywords: readymade garments, industry, labor cost, division labor, workers, EPZ, BEPZA, improper environment,
strikes, wages, safety, Machine layout, Political crisis, price
competitiveness, lead time.
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