Identifying industry problems and current practices:

The garment industry of Bangladesh has been the key export division and a main source
of foreign exchange for the last 25 years. National labor laws do not apply in the EPZs,
leaving BEPZA in full control over work conditions, wages and benefits. Garment
factories in Bangladesh provide employment to 40 percent of industrial workers. But
without the proper laws the worker are demanding their various wants and as a result
conflict is began with the industry.

Low working salary is another vital fact which makes the labor conflict. Worker made
strike, layout to capture their demand. Some time bonus and the overtime salary are the
important cause of crisis. Insufficient government policy about this sector is a great
problem in Garments Company.

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.

Picture: Labor- Management conflict in Garments Industry

According to our survey in five leading Company we found some problem which are
given in a chart with their percentage-

Primary Problems

Problems high medium low total

3 2 0 5
01.Raw-materials
60% 40% - 100%

1 3 1 5
02. Marketing problems
20% 60% 20% 100%

5 0 0 5
03. Machinery problem
100% - - 100%

3 2 0 5
04. Inefficient workforce
60% 40% - 100%

1 1 3 5
05. Licensing problem
20% 20% 60% 100%

4 1 0 5
06. Quota problem
80% 20% - 100%

3 2 0 5
07. Poor government policy 60% 40% - 100%

5 0 0 5
08. Labor unrest/strike
100% - - 100%

Chart: Primary problems of Garments Industries

 Primary Problems
120

100

80

60
Percentage (%)
40

20

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Problems

High Medium Low

Graph: Primary problems of Garments Industries

Secondary problems

Problems high medium low total

1 3 1 5
01.Middle man affect
20% 60% 20% 100%

0 2 3 5
02. Sluggish business linkage
- 40% 60% 100%

2 2 1 5
03. Unloading(RM) takes time
40% 40% 20% 100%

2 3 0 5
04. Time consuming schedule
40% 60% - 100%

1 2 2 5
05. Communication gap
20% 40% 40% 100%

5 0 0 5
06. Dependency on foreign market 100% - - 100%

0 2 3 5
07. Trade block
- 40% 60% 100%

2 3 0 5
08. Credit problem
40% 60% - 100%

Chart: Secondary problems of Garments Industries

Primary Problems
120

100

80

60
Percentage (%)
40

20

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Problems

High Medium Low

Graph: Secondary problems of Garments Industries

Safety Problems
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
● Lack of awareness among the workers and the owners

But now the situation is much improved and we found, all the surveyed garments are
fulfilling the requirement of emergency exit. It is provided in all the cases, signage is
present and fire fighting equipments are up to date, a departure from the past. Even fire
drill is held once in a month.

Fire safety in garments industry: Necessary Design matters

Picture: Training are now providing to the workers about what they do when the fire drill is held in
garments industry.

Bangladesh Faces the Challenge of Globalization

Bangladesh faces the challenge of achieving accelerated economic growth and
alleviating the massive poverty that afflicts nearly two-fifths of its 135 million people. To
meet this challenge, market-oriented liberalizing policy reforms were initiated in the
mid-1980s and were pursued much more vigorously in the 1990s. These reforms were
particularly aimed at moving towards an open economic regime and integrating with the
global economy.

During the 1990s, notable progress was made in economic performance. Along with
maintaining economic stabilization with a significantly reduced and declining
dependence on foreign aid, the economy appeared to begin a transition from
stabilization to growth. The average annual growth in per capita income had steadily
accelerated from about 1.6 per cent per annum in the first half of the 1980s to 3.6
percent by the latter half of the 1990s. This improved performance owed itself both to a
slowdown in population growth and a sustained increase in the rate of GDP growth,
which averaged 5.2 percent annually during the second half of the 1990s. During this
time, progress in the human development indicators was even more impressive.
Bangladesh was in fact among the top performing countries in the 1990s, when
measured by its improvement in the Human Development Index (HDI) as estimated by
the United Nations Development Project (UNDP). In terms of the increase in the value of
HDI between 1990 and 2001, Bangladesh is surpassed only by China and Cape Verde.

While most low-income countries depend largely on the export of primary commodities,
Bangladesh has made the transition from being primarily a jute-exporting country to a
garment-exporting one. This transition has been dictated by the country's resource
endowment, characterized by extreme land scarcity and a very high population density,
making economic growth dependent on the export of labor-intensive manufactures.

In the wake of the 2001 global recession, Bangladesh's reliance on foreign countries as a
market for exports and as a source of remittances has become obvious. If Bangladesh is
to become less vulnerable to the economic fortunes of others, it will need to strengthen
its domestic economy, creating jobs and markets at home. A strong domestic sector and
an improved overall investment environment will provide a more stable source of
income - like what the garment industry has provided so far - and will rekindle and
sustain Bangladesh's economic growth.

Prospects of the RMG Industry

Despite many difficulties faced by the RMG industry over the past years, it continued to
show its robust performance and competitive strength. The resilience and bold trend in
this MFA phase-out period partly reflects the imposition of ‘safeguard quotas’ by US and
similar restrictions by EU administration on China up to 2008, which has been the
largest supplier of textiles and apparel to USA. Other factors like price competitiveness,
enhanced GSP facility, market and product diversification, cheap labor, increased
backward integration, high level of investment, and government support are among the
key factors that helped the country to continue the momentum in export earnings in the
apparel sector. Some of these elements are reviewed below.

Market Diversification

Bangladeshi RMG products are mainly destined to the US and EU. Back in 1996-97,
Bangladesh was the 7th and 5th largest apparel exporter to the USA and European
Union respectively. The industry was successful in exploring the opportunities in
markets away from EU and US. In FY07, a successful turnaround was observed in exports
to third countries, which having a negative growth in FY06 rose three-fold in FY07, which
helped to record 23.1 percent overall export growth in the RMG sector. It is anticipated
that the trend of market diversification will continue and this will help to maintain the
growth momentum of export earnings. At the same time a recent WTO review points
out that Bangladesh has not been able to exploit fully the duty free access to EU that it
enjoys. While this is pointed out to be due to stringent rules of origin (ROO) criteria, the
relative stagnation in exports to EU requires further analysis.

Product Diversification
The growth pattern of RMG exports can be categorized into two distinct phases. During
the initial phase it was the woven category, which contributed the most. Second phase
is the emergence of knitwear products that powered the recent double digit (year-on-
year) growth starting in FY04. In the globalized economy and ever-changing fashion
world, product diversification is the key to continuous business success. Starting with a
few items, the entrepreneurs of the RMG sector have also been able to diversify the
product base ranging from ordinary shirts, T-shirts, trousers, shorts, pajamas, ladies and
children’s wear to sophisticated high value items like quality suits, branded jeans,
jackets, sweaters, embroidered wear etc. It is clear that value addition accrues mostly in
the designer items, and the sooner local entrepreneurs can catch on to this trend the
brighter be the RMG future.

Backward Integration

RMG industry in Bangladesh has already proved itself to be a resilient industry and can
be a catalyst for further industrialization in the country. However, this vital industry still
depends heavily on imported fabrics. After the liberalization of the quota regime some
of the major textile suppliers Thailand, India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan
increased their own RMG exports.
 Figure: Trend to back-to-back linkage

If Bangladesh wants to enjoy increased market access created by the global open
market economy it has no alternative but to produce textile items competitively at
home through the establishment of backward linkage with the RMG industry. To some
extent the industry has foreseen the need and has embarked on its own capacity
building.

Flow of Investment

It is plausible that domestic entrepreneurs alone may not be able to develop the textile
industry by establishing modern mills with adequate capacity to meet the growing RMG
demand. It is important to have significant flow of investment both in terms of finance
and technology. Figure 3 indicates that the investment outlook in this sector is
encouraging, although the uncertainties before the MFA phase-out period caused a
sluggish investment scenario. In part the momentum in the post-MFA phase-out period
is indicative of the efforts underway towards capacity building through backward
integration. This is evident in the pace of lending to the RMG sector and in the rising
import share of RMG related machinery. However further progress would be necessary
to improve and sustain competitiveness on a global scale.

Policy Regime of Government

Government of Bangladesh has played an active role in designing policy support to the
RMG sector that includes back-to-back L/C, bonded warehouse, cash incentives, export
credit guarantee scheme, tax holiday and related facilities. At present government
operates a cash compensation scheme through which domestic suppliers to export-
oriented RMG units receive a cash payment equivalent to 5 percent of the net FOB value
of exported garments. At the same time, income tax rate for textile manufacturers were
reduced to 15 percent from its earlier level for the period up to June 30, 2008. The
reduced tax rates and other facilities are likely to have a positive impact on the RMG
sector.

Infrastructural Impediments

The existence of sound infrastructural facilities is a prerequisite for economic

development. In Bangladesh, continuing growth of the RMG sector is dependent on the
development of a strong backward linkage in order to reduce the lead time. However,
other factors constraining competitiveness of Bangladesh’s RMG exports included the
absence of adequate physical infrastructure and utilities.

Labor Productivity

The productive efficiency of labor is more important determinant for gaining

comparative advantage than the physical abundance of labor. In Bangladesh, the
garment workers are mostly women with little education and training. The employment
of an uneven number of unskilled labors by the garment factories results in low
productivity and comparatively more expensive apparels. Bangladesh labor productivity
is known to be lower when it compared with of Sri Lanka, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Bangladesh must look for ways to improve the productivity of its labor force if it wants
to compete regionally if not globally. Because of cheap labor if our country makes the
labor productivity in the apex position, then we think the future of this sector is highly
optimistic.

Research and Training

The country has no dedicated research institute related to the apparel sector. RMG is
highly fashion oriented and constant market research is necessary to become successful
in the business. BGMEA has already established an institute which offers bachelor’s
degree in fashion designing and BKMEA is planning on setting up a research and training
institute. These and related initiatives need encouragement possibly intermediated by
donor-assisted technology and knowledge transfer. A facilitating public sector role can
be very relevant here.

Supportive Government Policy

In contrast to the public sector-led import-substituting industrialization strategy

pursued during the first few years after independence, the industrialization philosophy
of the government changed rather dramatically from the late 1970s when the emphasis
was on export-oriented growth to be spearheaded by the private sector. Towards this
end, various policy reforms were implemented in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of these
reformed policies contributed considerably to the growth of the RMG industry in
Bangladesh.

During the 1980s, a number of incentives were introduced to encourage export

activities. Some of them were new like the Bonded Warehouse Facility (BWF), while
others like the Export Performance License (XPL) Scheme

37 were already in operation and were improved upon. Also, rebates were given on
import duties and indirect taxes, there were tax reductions on export income, and
export financing was arranged. Under the XPL scheme, exporters of non-traditional
products received import licenses for specific products over and above their normal
percentage allotment based on the f.o.b. value of their exports. Under the Duty
Drawback System, exporters of manufactured goods were entitled to get refund of
duties and taxes paid on imported inputs used in export production, and also all excise
duties paid on exported finished goods. For certain fast-moving items such as RMG, a
notional system of duty payments was adopted in 1982-83. Under this system,
exporters were exempted from paying duties and taxes on imports used in export
production at the time of importation, but were required to keep records of raw and
21packaging materials imported. The duties and taxes payable on the imports were kept
in a suspense account. Liabilities to pay the amounts in suspense were removed on
proof of exports.

The discussion in this section clearly points to the positive contribution made by policy
reforms to the growth of the RMG industry in Bangladesh. In particular, two policies–
the SBW facility and the back-to-back L/C system- led to significant reduction in cost of
producing garments and enhanced competitiveness of Bangladesh’s garments exports.
It also allowed garment manufacturers to earn more profit which, when necessary,
could be used to overcome difficulties arising from weak governance. Furthermore, poor
governance, reflected in the leakage of duty-free imported fabrics in the domestic
market, paradoxically enough also helped the garment manufacturers to earn extra
‘profit’ and thereby enabled them to absorb the ‘high cost of doing businesses – a fall
out of bad governance.
Labor unrest:

Labor is an important input in industrial production. This is truer in garment industry of

Bangladesh. Mechanization and automation have not diminished the role of human element
in industrial establishments. In fact, the role of the workforce has become highly critical in
garment industry. Nor have the economic reforms belittled the significance of labor.
Liberalization of economy has brought labor to centre stage. Human resource is taken to be
an
important factor to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce costs all necessary to
survive in the competitive world. There are several issue related to labor. They are trade
union
movement, wage policy and industrial relation. Industrial labor in the garment sector has
undergone important changes over the two decades. Most important changes are
commitment
to industry, protective legislation, status of the worker, employment pattern, growth of trade
unionism, industrial disputes, political interference and in some cases unfair labor practices.
Despite the prevailing positive labor management relationship, the spiraling labor unrest in
the Bangladesh RMG industry started on May 2005 after a knitwear factory owner rejected
an
11-point charter of demands. The factory was completely gutted in the blaze. Protesting
workers
forced their way into an exclusive industrial zone for foreign investors and damaged
machinery.
These workers demanding unpaid wages and a weekly holiday smashed scores of vehicles
and burn down factories in Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka. Among the 250 damaged
units, at least 30 were owned by foreign investors in the Savar Export Processing Zone.
According
to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA) nearly 300
factories,
including 21 factories in the Savar Export Processing Zone (EPZ), were damaged during
the
three-day crisis. The total loss of the garment industry is around four billion taka (nearly $70
million). Many vehicles were also set on fire during the unrest, which left three workers dead
and hundreds others wounded. This is reportedly the worst industrial rioting in Bangladesh
in
the ready-made garment industry which is the country’s biggest export earner. The violence
also dealt a serious blow to the industry’s image apart from causing huge losses. Some
trade
union leaders blamed the outbreak on accumulated anger of workers, who even do not
have
any weekend. They alleged that some garment owners do not pay the worker their salaries
in
time and overtime regularly. The violent outburst of the workers crippled the industry for
many days. Several quarters seen it sabotage behind this development. On the other hand,
another quarters seen it is an explosion of anger that remains unresolved for long. Protests
over
low wages and other exploitative conditions continued in the month of June 2005 too. The
68 The Cost and Management, January-February, 2007
Uddin & Jahed
garment workers continued to hold rallies and clashed with law enforcers, leaving many
people
injured and few dead. Defying a ‘red alert’ imposed by law enforcers at the Dhaka Export
Processing Zone (DEPZ) and its adjoining industrial areas, workers were involved in
clashes in
the Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur areas. The deepening unrest in the garment industry forced
the foreign investors to announce on June 2005 that they have shut their units as fresh
violence
flared up in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ). Investors of 92 units in the EPZ said that
they
will not reopen the units until the government gives guarantee of law and order in the area.
They also requested the EPZ authority to declare the EPZ closed indefinitely to cool off the
situation. Leaders of the garment factory owners’ also urged the government to form an
industrial
police force to ensure a secure working environment for the apparel industry. They felt that
the
overall security situations in different industrial hubs were not risk free despite the
government’s
deployment of huge security forces. It was true that in the year 2005 the political instability
has been made worse by the simultaneous labor unrest in the economic lifeline of
Bangladesh
that is its garment industry. Initially the government and the industry leaders underestimated
the magnitude of the problem and tried to brush it aside by floating various conspiracy
theories.

Discrimination against female workers in the sector, in terms of wages, is hardly heard of now
according to Nazma Akhter, president of the Sammolito Garments Sromik Federation and the
General Secretary of Awaj Foundation, an NGO working for workers' rights. "There are seven
grades in a garments factory, where a worker starts off working as a helper in the seventh grade
with minimum wage of Tk 1662," the former garment worker explains. "As a worker gets
promoted, he or she shifts to a higher grade and accordingly gets a higher salary. Since
everything works according to these guidelines, there is hardly any scope of discrimination in
terms of wages. However, many workers are not regularly paid their wages. For instance the
other day, a worker called to say that she and the others in her factory had not been paid their
wages for the last two months. This is a common problem that workers, male or female, face
today."

Sexual harassment of female garment workers by male co-workers has been a long-standing
menace. According to Nazma, female workers are now stronger and more confident than they
used to be before and have formulated ways to tackle the harassers. Even though regulations
within a factory are now very strict where harassment is concerned, this is still a major problem
faced by female garment workers.

Despite the fact that a large number of female employees work in the garment sector, men still have the
upper hand. As a result, it becomes very difficult for women to express their needs. "For instance, there
are many factories who still do not have a provision for maternity leaves for female workers," says
Nazma. "While some are probably not bothered, the other factories are simply not aware of the fact
that the women need the maternity leaves. If the women are given the leave, they would probably be a
paid leave for two months and the other two months would be non-paid. Sometimes, even the women
themselves are not aware of the fact that it is their right to a four-month paid maternity leave as per the
government policy. Some of them even come to us to ask how to apply for the leave."

The garment industry of Bangladesh has been the key export division and a main source of
foreign exchange for the last 25 years. The industry provides employment to about 3 million
workers of whom 90% are women. This sector is entirely export oriented and is composed of
over 5000 units - most working for international buyers, some owned by international
companies. Most of the garment units are clustered in industrial areas and Export Processing
Zones (EPZs) in and around Dhaka. In 1978 the Bangladesh government set up EPZs to attract
foreign capital and earn export dollars. In 1993 the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone
Authority (BEPZA) was set up and a blanket ban on trade union activity imposed. The EPZs
now employ 70,000 workers, mostly in the garment and shoe-making industries (though most of
the garment industry exists outside the EPZs). National labour laws do not apply in the EPZs,
leaving BEPZA in full control over work conditions, wages and benefits. Garment factories in
Bangladesh provide employment to 40 percent of industrial workers. More than three-quarters of
the $7.8 billion of Bangladesh's export earnings comes from exporting garments. Most of the
garment workers have migrated from the poorest rural areas into the city slums. The slum
population of Dhaka has doubled in the last 10 years (up to 3.4 million in 2006 from only 1.5
million in 1996 following heavy rural-urban migration). More than 90 per cent of the slum
dwellers have income below poverty line, which is Taka 5,000 (£ 37.00) a month per household.
The dwellers are mostly transport workers, day labourers, garment workers, small vendors,
informal traders and domestic helps. It is this wider community that usually joins in the clashes
and riots with the garment workers.

The global economy is controlled by the transfer of production, where firms in developed
countries turn their attention to developing countries. The new system is centred on a core-
periphery system of production, with a comparatively small centre of permanent employees
dealing with finance, research and development, technological institution and modernisation and
a periphery containing dependent elements of production procedure. Reducing costs and
increasing output are the main causes for this arrangement. They have discovered that the
simplest way to cut costs is to move production to a country where labour charge and production
costs are lower. According to one report (see Editorial Section, New Age, 30/01/2008) the hourly
wage in Bangladesh is $0.25 compared to $0.35 in China, $0.60 in India, $0.40 in Indonesia, ,
$0.40 in Pakistan,  $0.45 in Sri Lanka and $2.40 in Mexico. Since developing nations provide
areas that do not impose costs like environmental degeneration on the factories who make the
mess, this practice protects the developed countries against the problems of environment and
law. The transfer of production to Third World has helped the expansion of economy and also
sped up the economy of the developed nations.  Two non-market elements have performed a
vital function in confirming the garment industry's so called continual success in Bangladesh;
these elements are (a) quotas under Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) in the North American
market and (b) special market entry to European markets.

The MFA and special market entry to European markets rest on a system of clothing and textile
export quotas allocated to developing countries by developed countries. The industrialised
nations established these quotas as a means of protecting their own sectors in the face of
increasing competition from countries where goods could be produced at lower costs, such as
Asia. The quotas allocated to highly competitive exporting countries, such as the South Korean
Republic, tended to be very limited, while those allocated to those that exported less were bigger.
This led clothing exporters to move all over the world in search of the quotas available,
contributing to the creation of millions of jobs in countries that previously had a very small
clothing export base, or none at all, such as Bangladesh. Indeed, as a developing country reached
its export quota ceiling, production was redirected to countries with either unfulfilled quotas or
no quotas at all. Some of these states did not have the infrastructure needed for the harmonious
development of this sector, but still saw a rise in the growth of clothing manufacturers thanks to
the quota system alone.

The MFA was renewed on three occasions over the years and was finally phased out on 1
January 2005. The MFA expired and Bangladeshi exporters were no longer protected by the
quotas restricting imports of textiles and clothing from more competitive countries like China
and India. The end of the quota system led to the loss of 1 million jobs in Bangladesh’s clothing
industry. The Bangladeshi government itself estimated that at least 200,000 to 300,000 workers
lost their jobs. Millions of jobs in related sectors of activity, such as transportation, button
making, information businesses, hotels, financial services and property companies went into risk.
USA’s imports of baby clothes from China more than quadrupled in 2002, whilst those from
Bangladesh fell by 16%. Other types of clothes show similar trends: according to the
government, Bangladesh has lost 33% of its export markets for the 29 products removed from
the quota system on 1 January 2002, mostly to the benefit of China and Vietnam. Hundreds of
garment factories were closed between 2001 and 2003 following the drop in demand from the
USA after the attacks on September 11 2001. As the import of Chinese goods increased, the
USA also started to buy more clothes from Caribbean and sub-Saharan African countries, which
have recently been granted customs-free access to this market for their clothes. At the same time,
the USA has kept high taxes on clothes imported from Bangladesh. In 2002, Bangladesh paid
almost the same amount in tax on its 2.4 billion dollars of clothes exports to the USA
(approximately 330 million dollars) as France for its 24 billion million dollars of exports to the
USA. The other major market for Bangladeshi exporters, the European Union (EU), has scrapped
import dues though only on a few clothes containing a certain proportion of materials with the
“made in Bangladesh” label.

Solely concerned with making profits, Bangladeshi garments employers are quick to accept
orders even when they know it will be very difficult to deliver them on time. They put pressure
on employees to do a lot of overtime. Given the low basic wages, the workers are forced to agree
to do this overtime. However the fatigue that the latter produces adds to the existing bad health
of many workers in this sector and to a reduction in the quality of products and in the companies’
productivity. That has gone worse since the government has recently announced that it would
increase the amount of authorised overtime and reduce the restrictions on women’s night work.

Trade Unions

The textile and clothing companies in Bangladesh are some of the most hostile towards
recognition of workers’ union rights. Out of 3,000 textile firms that produce for the export
market barely 127 have an officially registered union and less than a dozen employers have
serious negotiations with unions. Workers are frequently victims of sackings, beatings or false
accusations by the police of militancy within their unions. Workers who try to set up a union are
not protected before its registration and so are often subjected to harassment from their
employers, which sometimes assume a violent form with police support. The names of workers
asking to register a union are often passed on to employers, who quickly try to transfer or sack
them, above all in the textile sector. Even once a union has been registered those workers
suspected of activism are subjected to frequent harassment. Majority of trade unions in
Bangladesh have direct or indirect links with local and foreign Non-Governmental Organisations
(NGOs), and receiving lucrative grants seem to be their main goal. Most of the trade unions
appear to be tools of main political parties, strikes being used more as vehicles for pursuing
political goals against rival parties rather than improving workers' conditions.

Minimum wage for the workers is now Taka 950 (£7.00) a month that was fixed around 12 years
ago. Nearly all workers in the Bangladesh garment industry work for little more than starvation
wages, under conditions closer to those endured by European workers 150-200 years ago.
Physical and sexual abuse in the workplace is common where most are girls as young as 12 years
old. Over time is often compulsory and wages are sometimes withheld for months. The condition
is worse outside the EPZs where 80% of the garments workers are employed (see
www.libcom.org).

Exploitation 
To stay in the international competition without any quota system in place, the garment
employers are sucking the blood out of the workers. The minimum wage hasn’t improved for
years and with no clear trade union intervention regarding this matter, employers are exploiting
workers at will. The easiest way the system can extract surplus value is by prolonging the
working hours. This is a classic example of extracting absolute surplus value. In Capital Vol 1,
Marx mentions:

The prolongation of the working-day beyond the point at which the labourer would have
produced just an equivalent for the value of his labour-power, and the appropriation of that
surplus-labour by capital, this is production of absolute surplus-value. It forms the general
groundwork of the capitalist system…. (Karl Marx, Vol 1, Part 5, chapter 16)

There is a limit in increasing the total working hours. It has serious impact on the health of the
workers, resulting in inefficiency.  A study carried out in 2003 by a Bangladeshi institute on over
800 textile workers discovered that 42% of women workers and 24% of their male counterparts
are suffering from chronic diseases (such as gastro-intestinal infections, urinary complaints,
blood pressure problems and anaemia, etc.). 45% of the women and 36% of the men who were
interviewed said they felt weak, whilst 3% of the women and 4% of the men had fainted in the
months prior to their interviews. Their weakened state is causing major losses of productivity but
has not encouraged the bosses to make radical improvements to the situation

This is not the end of the plight of the workers. With huge job losses in the garments sector
women workers are the most vulnerable. It can be said that trafficking of Bangladeshi girls to
foreign countries could increase as the number of jobs falls in the textile industry. The prospect
of getting a job in this sector in Dhaka or other major cities attracts tens of thousands of young
women from rural areas, who are determined not to return to their villages without having
succeeded in earning a lot of money. The traffickers are well aware that these young women are
in a very vulnerable position. In most cases these women have no idea of the risk they run of
ending up in foreign prostitution networks. The traffickers sell these girls for around 100 to 400
US dollars. India, Pakistan and some Arab countries are the main destinations for these smuggled
girls.