Letter of Transmittal

1 April, 2018

Tasnuva Jahan
Guest Faculty
School of Business Studies
Southeast University
Subject: Submission of assignment.

Dear Madam,

Here is the assignment that we assigned on the topic as per your request. The
assignment has been completed by the knowledge that we have gathered from the
course- “Socio-Economic Profiles of Bangladesh” Course code-“ECO1124”,
Section-“02”. It is a great pleasure for us to present the assignment.

We have tried our best level to complete this assignment meaningfully and correctly,
as much as possible. We would be happy if you read the assignment carefully and will
be trying to answer all the analysis & solution the assignment. We believe that our
tiresome effort will help you to get ahead with this sort of venture. In this case it will
be meaningful to us.

Lastly we would be thankful once again if you please give your judicious advice on
effort.

Sincerely yours,
Name- Shakir Mahmud Shourav
“On behalf of our group”
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 2|P a g e

Table of Contents

Letter of Transmittal ....................................................................................................... 1

Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction: Garments Industry of Bangladesh ............................................................ 5

Present Scenario of Garments Industries in Bangladesh ................................................ 6

Workers Participation in the Garments Industry ............................................................ 7

Rights of the Garments Workers in Bangladesh ............................................................ 9

Safety & Security of Garments Workers ...................................................................... 10

Wages & Salaries of Garments Workers ...................................................................... 11

Findings & Analysis ..................................................................................................... 12

Recommendation .......................................................................................................... 13

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 14

References .................................................................................................................... 15
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 3|P a g e

Abstract
Garments industry in our country plays a vital role in our country. We have seen that
our country is one of the best RMG products exporter in the world. The garments
industry has achieved 80% of the export earnings every year. So it is the
responsibilities for the government and garments owners to retain the industry. But the
industry has some criticism on workers unrest. Unsafety workplace, minimum wages
& salaries, excessive working hours, harassment, lack of medical and recreational
facilities are some alarming in the industry. Still now working environment of the
industry is not developed. As a result many accidents are occurred often. The reason
behind the unrest workers is that the government did not create rules and regulations
for the garments industry and take proper actions against corruption.

Our garments industry lost the prestige day by day. If the country cannot hold this
prestige, the country will face great economic crisis. So it the responsibility for the
government to retain the industry by reducing corruption. The owners must have been
given intention for ensuring high working environment and other facilities. Proper
salaries should be given to the employees. Thus the unrestful environment of the
garments industry can be reduced.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 4|P a g e

Introduction

Hopefully we have presented you our assignment on a topic “Labour Unrest in the
Redaymade Garments Sector”. The topic refers to describe the conditions of
readymade garments workers in Bangladesh .We have made the assignment as you
had given us to analyse by help of your suggestions.
We believe that the knowledge and experience we gathered during the assignment will
extremely helpful in our future professional and academic life. We will be grateful to
you if you accept the assignment.
We assign the assignment to analyze and recommend some important exposures. This
assignment helps ours to get new experience for preparing it.
For this, we have read various books, journals and websites’ articles for preparing our
assignment. We hope this information will help us to collect accurate information. We
hope that this assignment also helps us as a further useful information.

Objectives of the assignment-

 To know the present condition of garments industry.
 To identify the overall workers facilities of the garments factories.
 To discuss the legal rights of the garments workers.
 To understand the problems of the garments workers
 To evaluate how the problems can be solved.

Methodology-

 Methods of collecting data: Secondary.

 Secondary Data: Books, articles, websites etc.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 5|P a g e

Introduction: Garments Industry of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a South Asian developing country with a population of approximately

164 million people. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
31% of the people live below the national poverty line of US$2 per day.1 The
economy of the country is largely dependent on agriculture. But Bangladesh has
achieved as a biggest earner of foreign currency for its garments sector. It is also
called readymade garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh. The readymade garments
(RMG) industry which is now the single biggest export earner for Bangladesh. The
sector accounts for 81% of total export earnings of the country. 2 This sector creates
about 4.2 million employment opportunities and contributes significantly. The sector
also provide rapid growth in developing economy.

There are male, female and also children labours have been participated as garments
workers. We have seen that women workers are mostly participated in the garments
sector. Because they have no educational qualification and they have involved such
kind of works for poverty. Most of them have to look after their families and parents.
So the role of women is significantly appeared in the garments industry which has
been an important means of economic security. But other focus on that women and
also male employees are disproportionately victims of such accidents and punishment.
The problem of health and safety issues of workplace of garment industries in
Bangladesh based upon the industry environment, their residential environment,
working condition, age, problem of health, causes of diseases, causes of fire accident
and their medical facilities etc.

1
Farzana, Misha Farzana, 2016. Bangladesh Priorities. Poverty, Sulaiman and Misha | Copenhagen Consensus
Center, 01, 07.
2
BGMEA. 2015. About Garment Industry of Bangladesh. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.bgmea.com.bd/home/pages/AboutGarmentsIndustry. [Accessed 28 March 2017].
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 6|P a g e

Present Scenario of Garments Industries in Bangladesh

At present Bangladesh is one of the major suppliers of the region of South-Asia of the
Readymade garments with 5000 factories employing about 3.6 million workers. The
role of RMG sector in Bangladesh economy is remarkable. RMG sector contributes to
the national economy in considerable rate. About 76% of total export earnings come
from RMG sector. In the financial year of 2013-14 the value of exporting garments
products stands at $24.49 billion.

Though RMG sector of Bangladesh has achieved the second spot for the highest
number of garments exporter, but it has a lot of problems. The major problems of
RMG sector currently is the lack of safety in working place for the workers. It has
become a great challenge for the upcoming period of Bangladesh. Specially women
workers are faced the problem mostly in our country. Moreover insufficient wages
and salaries, excessive pressure on working, excessive working hours, insufficient
health facilities has become alarming problems in the industry.

BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) and

BKMEA (Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association) of
Bangladesh are working together here to solve such kinds of problems. They have also
taken necessary actions and invested huge amount of money. But we found very little
regarding the workers deserve. It’s a huge responsibility for the government of
Bangladesh to ensure working place safety in all the garments manufacturing factories
for socio-economic development in the country.3 But Political stability creates a
negative impact on RMG sector of Bangladesh. If it continues, it will be a massive
blow to destroy our most valuable sector. So, political leaders should come out
immediately to solve such kinds of problems.

3
Akhter, S., Salahuddin, A.F.M., Iqbal, M., Malek, A.B.M.A. and Jahan, N., 2010. Health and occupational safety
for female workforce of garment industries in Bangladesh. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 41(1), pp.65-70.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 7|P a g e

Workers Participation in the Garments Industry

A person who makes garments is called garment workers. Someone whose occupation
is making garments products like dress, pants etc are also called garment workers. We
have said before that almost 3.6 million workers are working in the garments industry.
Almost all of them worked in the ready-made garment industry are children and
women. Based on the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey estimated
there were about 5.7 million 10 to 14 years old children engaged in child labor. This
number may have been as high as 15 million children.4

Age group wise workers5

Characteristics Categories Respondents Percentages (%)

(Age)
18-21 20 22.22
22-25 38 42.22
Ages Group (years) 26-29 25 27.77
30-33 06 6.67
34-37 01 1.1

Age Group Wise Workers

50
40
Percentages

30
20
10
0
18-21 22-25 26-29 30-33 34-37

Age Group Wise Workers

We have seen that from 22 to 25 aged workers have mostly participated in the
garments industry.

4
Report, Bangladesh, 2013. Child Labor in Export Industry. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 01, 01.
5
Ms, Kaniz Farhana, 2015. PRESENTSTATUS OFWORKERSIN READY-MADEGARMENTS INDUSTRIES
INBANGLADESH. European Scientific Journal, 11, 567-568.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 8|P a g e

Almost 66.33% labours of the garments industry are women. The participation rate of
women is much higher than male workers. So women plays an important role in
producing garments products.

Gender Wise Participation Rate

33%
Male
Female
67%
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 9|P a g e

Rights of the Garments Workers in Bangladesh

Following rights of the Garments workers are given bellow-

 Right to Wages- Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the
health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing, medical care, necessary social services, and the right to security.
Wages and benefits are one of the primary interests an employee may have. All
employees are entitled to be paid for the work they have done.
 Right to safety in the workplace- Employees have the right to a workplace that
is reasonably free of safety and health hazards. When an employer doesn’t set
the workplace’s health and safety standards as high as the standards found in
regulations, then the regulations need to be properly enforced. Government
inspectors play an important role in the enforcement of regulations by ensuring
that employers are meeting the legal standards.
 Right to medical facilities- Medical facilities is very important in the garments
factories. Generally workers of the garments have operated heavy-duty
production machines. As a result unexpected incident may have occurred with
the workers. Moreover workers illness are also included in the medical
facilities. Almost 98% workers are very poor. So it is the responsibility for the
garments owners to fulfill medical facilities.
 Right to Leisure and recreation- Every person must have leisure time for
recreation. It is the right of the workers to give recreation facilities. A study
found that, 46% garments workers like to enjoy watching Cinema (in Cinema
hall or video in the home), 39% like to go outside (with their dear ones), 9%
like shopping 3% and 3% have no special recreation plan at all. They like to
gossip with neighbors& take rest by sleeping in the house.6

6
Bhuiyan, Z.A., 2012. Present status of garment workers in Bangladesh: An analysis. IOSR Journal of Business
and Management, 3(5), pp.38-44.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 10 | P a g e

Safety & Security of Garments Workers

We have already discussed how much important the garments sector for Bangladesh
and its economy. But the working environment of the garments factories does not
developed at all. Moreover unsafe working condition, low salaries, physical and
mental repression is a common problem in the garments industry. This case is mainly
focused on the tragedy affairs of garments industry in Bangladesh. As our country has
earned a huge amount of foreign currency by exporting RMG (Ready Made
Garments). So it is the main responsibility for the government of Bangladesh to ensure
good working environment for the RMG supply chain employees. Supply chain
consists of a company, an immediate supplier and an immediate customer directly
linked by one or more of the upstream and downstream flows of products, services,
finances and information.7

For lack of safety & security in the workplace, the industry had faced some
unpredictable accidents. Some horrible accidents in the garments industry are Tazreen
fashion Fire incidents (2012), Rana plaza collapse (2013), Spectrum garments collapse
(2005) etc. These incidents may have bought about great economic fall in our country
and lost the industry’s prestige. We assign all of the responsibilities of these horrible
crisis to the government and garments owners. The politicians take hush money from
the garments’ owners.8 The garments owners have placed their factories at their sweet
will. As a result safety lacks in the factories. The factory owners have taken high
profit. If the government generates straight regulations for the owners, the owners can
get less profit but ensure up-to-date safety codes.

7
John, T (2001). Supply Chain Management. (1st ed.). London: SAGE.
8
Solidarity Center. 2016. Bangladesh Garment and Textile Factory Safety Incidents. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Bangladesh.Garment-Textile-Factory-Fire-
Incidents-since-Tazreen.04.16.pdf. [Accessed 28 march 2018].
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 11 | P a g e

Wages & Salaries of Garments Workers

Insufficient wages have also become an alarming problem in the garments industry.
The existing minimum monthly wage of Tk 5,300 or almost $65 came into effect
from Jan 1, 2014.9 This is not enough salary for a garment worker. Only 0.40% of
garment workers can save some money while 99.60 percent have no savings. A survey
also showed that around 64% of RMG workers did not earn enough to meet their
basic needs, while 77.2% work overtime in order to compensate for the insufficient
wages. The minimum salary for a sweeper on the government pay scale is Tk15,250,
while the minimum salary for a garment worker is Tk5,300.10

In 2015 the income of workers are11

Income per month Respondents Percentages (%)

7000-8000 21 23
8000-9000 22 24
9000-10000 43 48
10000-11000 04 04

Income of garments workers

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
7000-8000 8000-9000 9000-10000 10000-11000

9
BDNews24. 2018. Bangladesh moves to revise minimum wage for garment workers. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://bdnews24.com/business/2018/01/14/bangladesh-moves-to-revise-minimum-wage-for-garment-
workers. [Accessed 30 March 2018].
10
Dhaka Tribune. 2017. 64% RMG workers do not earn enough to meet basic needs. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/11/23/rmg-workers-basic-needs/. [Accessed 30 March
2018].
11
Ms, Kaniz Farhana, 2015. PRESENTSTATUS OFWORKERSIN READY-MADEGARMENTS INDUSTRIES
INBANGLADESH. European Scientific Journal, 11, 572.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 12 | P a g e

Findings & Analysis

The major findings we have get -

1. Insufficient salaries have been given to the workers by garments owners.

2. Lack of safe and secure workplace environment for the workers.
3. Problems of workers’ accommodation ((like shortage room, unhealthy food,
unsafe water etc).
4. Child labour in the workplace in public. Although the government has not paid
attention in the unethical problem.
5. Exceeding pressure on labour work. As a result workers have to remain overtime
period for working.
6. Lack of health & safety for the workers. Most of the garments factories have no
instruments for immediate treatment. Sometimes proper compensation has not
given to the workers for unexpected incidents in the workplace.
7. Disciplinary practices and harassment are appeared mostly in the garments factory.
8. Excessive working hours for the workers. Most of the times workers have been
bounded to work obsessive works by the employers.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 13 | P a g e

Recommendation

Some ideas can be done for the betterment of the garments workers to stop
unrest situation . The major recommendation are-

1. We have seen that still garments workers are ill paid. So government should
ensure their wages in regular basis on right time. Their salary structure
should be revised with present condition of the market. Not only the government
but also the garments owners should aware of proper wages.
2. There many indiscipline in the factories such as physical torture, abuse which
should be checked from the government so that such kind of irregularity with the
workers can be stopped.
3. The factory owners have forced to work in the holiday. So these excessive labour
works should be stopped by the government.
4. Sometimes garments employers randomly cut salaries in the name of late coming,
bad performance, bad quality etc which should there be minimized.
5. BGMEA, BKMEA are always saying about consent issues for the workers as
guardians
6. Child care with Schooling system may there be introduced for the garments
workers children in which BGMEA, BKMEA & government will take responsibly
to ensure the education up to the mark.
7. Facilities should be increased to maximize the health & recreational facilities of
the garments workers by the factory owners garments.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 14 | P a g e

Conclusion

We have already discussed the problems and tried to answer proper recommendation
for the garments industry. We think that it will be a great chance for our country’s
economic development if the government invest on garments sector for assuring good
working condition for the employees. Still now buyers have remained their first
choice for buying RMG products. So if our country cannot hold the prestige, the
country will suffer in the long run. So working environment of our country’s industry
must be developed.
We have discussed the full description of the assignment. Actually this assignment
also help us to know the present scenario, problems, prospects the garments industry
of our country. We have tried our best to prepare our assignment. We think this
assignment will definitely help to achieve new knowledge.
Labour Unrest in the RMG Sector 15 | P a g e

References

 Farzana, Misha Farzana, 2016. Bangladesh Priorities. Poverty, Sulaiman and

Misha | Copenhagen Consensus Center, 01, 07.
 BGMEA. 2015. About Garment Industry of Bangladesh. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.bgmea.com.bd/home/pages/AboutGarmentsIndustry. [Accessed 28
March 2017].
 Akhter, S., Salahuddin, A.F.M., Iqbal, M., Malek, A.B.M.A. and Jahan, N., 2010.
Health and occupational safety for female workforce of garment industries in
Bangladesh. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 41(1), pp.65-70.
 Report, Bangladesh, 2013. Child Labor in Export Industry. Bureau of International
Labor Affairs, 01, 01.
 Ms, Kaniz Farhana, 2015. PRESENTSTATUS OFWORKERSIN READY-
MADEGARMENTS INDUSTRIES INBANGLADESH. European Scientific
Journal, 11, 567-568.
 Bhuiyan, Z.A., 2012. Present status of garment workers in Bangladesh: An
analysis. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 3(5), pp.38-44.
 John, T (2001). Supply Chain Management. (1st ed.). London: SAGE.
 Solidarity Center. 2016. Bangladesh Garment and Textile Factory Safety Incidents.
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/04/Bangladesh.Garment-Textile-Factory-Fire-Incidents-
since-Tazreen.04.16.pdf. [Accessed 28 march 2018].
 BDNews24. 2018. Bangladesh moves to revise minimum wage for garment
workers. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://bdnews24.com/business/2018/01/14/bangladesh-moves-to-revise-
minimum-wage-for-garment-workers. [Accessed 30 March 2018].
 Ms, Kaniz Farhana, 2015. PRESENTSTATUS OFWORKERSIN READY-
MADEGARMENTS INDUSTRIES INBANGLADESH. European Scientific
Journal, 11, 567-568.