Report on analyzing minimum wages decision and consequences in

Bangladesh

COURSE ID: HRM 370

SECTION: 01

SUBMITTED BY:

Name ID
Nusrat Jahan Deepty 1820634
Rabeya Boshry 1210515
Sangida Shahrin Aonty 1610436
Mohammad Junayed Hossain 1721552
Ahmed Araf Khan Mojlish 1620338

SUBMITTED TO:
Bushra Sanjana

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 31st March, 2020

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 Letter of Transmittal

Date: 31 March, 2020

Bushra Sanjana,

School of Business

Independent University, Bangladesh

Subject: Submission on final report on analyzing minimum wages decision and consequences in

Bangladesh.

Dear Ma’am,

We would gladly like to inform you that we have finally prepared the project assigned to us for
the course HRM 370 stated as Labor economics and Compensation theory for spring, 2020. The
Accompanying report consists of all the information asked from us within the project outline
regarding minimum wages decision and consequences in Bangladesh.

We humbly request you to accept this report for your kind evaluation. We are immensely
thankful for the support we gained from you throughout the course and we hope that our
knowledge and understanding is portrayed via our report. If any further information is required,
please contact any of the group members.

Regards,

Sangida Shahrin Aonty 1610436

Rabeya Boshry 1210515

Ahmed Araf Khan Mojlish 1620338

Mohammad Junayed Hossain 1721552

Nusrat Jahan Deepty 1820634

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 Table of Contents
Executive summary......................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
The Concept of Living Wage .......................................................................................................... 6
Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6
Minimum Wage Calculation Process.............................................................................................. 9
Legislation regarding wages (recent changes): ............................................................................. 10
Wage comparison with other industrialized nations ..................................................................... 10
Clean Clothes Campaign ........................................................................................................... 11
Accord Int.................................................................................................................................. 11
Creation of the accord: .......................................................................................................... 12
Terms and Conditions:........................................................................................................... 13
Recent riot in RMG sector ............................................................................................................ 13
Problem Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 15
Wage discrimination: ................................................................................................................ 15
Improper working environment: ............................................................................................... 15
Lack of managerial knowledge: ................................................................................................ 16
The gendered division of labor: ................................................................................................ 16
Unit labor cost: .......................................................................................................................... 16
Safety Problems: ....................................................................................................................... 17
Political crisis: ........................................................................................................................... 17
Sustainable Solutions .................................................................................................................... 18
Long Term Impacts: .................................................................................................................. 18
Short term solutions: ................................................................................................................. 18
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 20
Recommendation .......................................................................................................................... 20
References ..................................................................................................................................... 21
 

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 Executive summary
In this report, a living wage refers to a theoretical income level that allows an individual or
family to afford adequate shelter, food and other basic necessities. The goal of a living wages is
to allow employees to earn enough income for a satisfactory standard of living and to prevent
them from falling into poverty. The living wages methodology follow two components which
estimate cost of basic but decent lifestyle for a worker and his/her family in a particular place.
Another component determined if the estimated living wages is being paid to workers.
Employers calculate wages by multiplying an hourly rate times the number of hours worked.
After Rana plaza tragedy (2013) there is three vital changes caused restrict maintenance. The
government of Bangladesh, European Union, the United States, Canada and the International
Labor Organization got engaged in that joint initiative in order to promote continuous
improvements in labor rights and factory safety in the readymade garment industry in
Bangladesh. We have shown that three Asian countries Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia and
small East African nation have the world’s lowest labor cost measured as a combination of
wages, employment regulation, social security contribution and labor productivity. In 2019
Bangladesh garment workers went on strikes demanding about increasing their salaries, solved
both workers and owner’s satisfaction to stay productivity. The RMG sector had to face lot of
problems but later they came into solution. All of that are long term solution that gain expertise
in understanding the needs and demand of their labors and in the short term solution what the
owner’s and labor’s can do is to create common platform for owners and labors, where both
parties raise their problems, and therefore find better solution.

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 Introduction
Readymade Garment (RMG) sector is the key sector of Bangladesh economy. It provides job
opportunities for more than 4 million people and most of whose are women. Since last three
decades, the RMG sector has become the leading export earning sector. It becomes possible only
for cheap labor force. But inflation rate has in Bangladesh is also high. Thus the real wages in
RMG sector is very low. As a result workers lead a measurable life.

In addition, the year 2019 was a year of highs and lows for Bangladesh RMG sector. On
balance, it was a year of positivity. At the start of the year, we saw positive growth in apparel
exports, however, it decline as the year went on, with significant falls in woven and knit apparel
export to our global partners in the months of November and December. While this is a concern,
on also has to factor in the unstable nature of the global economy at the present time which
undoubtedly impacted global trading patterns during 2019. We saw wages for garment workers
increase at the turn of the year, however this sizeable increase of the cost base of the industry
was not matched by increases in sector productivity. The net result of such a dynamic was
always going to be that some factories would struggle to make ends meet.

While 2019 was a mixed year, it also presented enough evidence that Bangladesh’s RMG sector
is waking up to the dawn of a new era, with growing recognition that what has worked in the
past won’t necessarily work in the future. In this year, we saw the formation of RMG
Sustainable Council (RSC) which will look after the safety monitoring issues after the departure
of Accord and Alliance. This step shows that Bangladesh is determined to continue to lead the
global apparel industry on factory compliance and safety issues.

Despite the challenges the RMG sector has set a target of $50 billion exports by 2021. This target
can be reached if the country grows at a higher rate. China will be moving on to high –tech
segment from the lower one and Bangladesh can take advantage of shifting orders.

In short, Bangladesh needs to brand itself as the de-facto sourcing destination for brands which
want high-quality apparel produced in safe, compliant factories to world-class production
standards, adhering to high levels of environment and social responsibility. It’s time to change
the narrative on Bangladesh RMG for good.

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 The Concept of Living Wage
The concept clarifies the wage policy of a worker in an organization—the policy states that the
individual is paid enough wages in order to contribute to their family’s basic necessities such as
Food, Shelter and Education. It also mandates that no more than 30% of it should be spent on
rent or mortgages keeping them from falling into the well of poverty. The concept of the Living
Wage is often considered to be the wage which is a portion higher than the mandated Minimum
Wage. In order to understand the methodology of Living Wage—GLWC (Global Living Wage
Coalition) was formed in order to share a common engagement and understanding in respect to
estimate a Living Wage. The founding members of the GLWC are – Fairtrade International,
Good weave International, Social Accountability International (SAI) and UTZ. They have come
into a common ground into the concept of Living wage whilst making decision and strategizing
their policies to excel and making sure the living wage that are provided are solely based on the
wellbeing of these workers and not at all unfair, this is to bring improvements to their long term
goals as the commitment of these organizations is to seek varieties of strategies seeking success
as a whole. They also seek the proper implementation and methodology of the living wage as per
the respective labor standards for the wellbeing of the workers and the organization as a whole.

Methodology

It consists of two basic and main components; one is to estimate the basic cost of leading a
lifestyle with no burdens, a decent lifestyle as per the workers needs for the fulfillment of their
family. The secondary component deals with if the estimated living wage is being handed over to
the workers or not.

The making of the first methodology deals with the trustworthy factor, in order to do that the
participation of the locals and their organizations becomes one of the key factors to prove its
credibility in the society and the stakeholder’s promises and acceptance towards it. Before
concluding the rest of the methods, the system holds new and systematic aspects so that the
reliability of the methods does not fall under the flaws of logistics and statistical base. The next
one deals with the cost of the housing, the preparation of this estimation the comparison between
international and national decent housing cost comes in calculation—this enables the factor of
determining which countries are appropriately setting the housing cost in the decent category and

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helps estimate the living wage for each of their suitability. The third coming of the methodology
deals with the factor of credibility and associated solidness of the research and detailed
information gained into building such estimation because the factors deals with the Education,
Health Care, Transportation costs of these workers and the rightful way to initiate the
determination would be to calculate and collect the data with full activeness and research
reliability in the most just manner.

The final method elaborates the determination or paying and receiving, this deals with the living
wage that is not only being paid by cash but the extra benefits and payments for their overtime,
bonuses and other inclusive benefits, these are deductions because this is the rate of payment that
are being paid under the standard wage rate system and beneficial requirements.

Figure: The methodology of Estimating Living Wage Analytics

The figure is the depiction of the process how the methodology works when the estimation of the
cost of living wages of the workers comes to discussion.

To initiate the cost of foods intake per worker is taken into priority, the data collection of what
types of food are usually consumed and the nutrition’s required as per the World Health
Organization (WHO)’s research. By thorough research the collection of local food prices is

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collected and furthermore relates with the workers input, and that is how the estimation of a
worker’s ration is estimated as per their references.

Following the food choices, the living shelters are discussed—the basic necessities of a proper
livable house require a place which comes with a basic and risk-free aura. Upon research and
collection of sites visited data of these workers shelters are taken into notable actions and as per
their requirement the standard is set.

Finally, the data is collected based on the essential requirements on household and food choices,
to live a healthy life; the secondary requirements are then based on household expenditure data
on the sufficient funds. The healthcare benefits for the family’s wellbeing, Education for the
children, and proper transportation for the worker.

This estimations finally reach a point where the proper givable living wage is set in order for the
worker to be benefitted and as well as his family and a proper security to initiate the risk of not
being in a “poor living” condition, the ability to tackle emergency situations and able to lead a
secured and enabled life as a whole.

Figure: Living wage as per family members and labor skills, circa 2018

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 Minimum Wage Calculation Process
The concept of minimum wage rate means the lowest remuneration that employers are required
to pay their employees as per governed by the state. The minimum wage rate is calculated as per
total hours worked and it multiplied with the minimum wage rate per hour.
**Basic Formula: (Minimum Wage Rate/Hour) *(Hours Worked) **

The minimum wage rate set by the Government of Bangladesh in the RMG sector, as of this
date, is 8000 BDT/ Month. This is the highest it has been in the history of Minimum Wage Rate
in Bangladesh. The separate law for the Minimum Wage Rate is not in existence, but under the
BLA 2013 (Bangladesh Labor Act, 2013), a separate board is established in order to decide and
govern the minimum wage rate known as MWB (Minimum Wage Board). The decision of the
increment of the wage rate is solely based on the recommendations of wage boards of certain
industries and as per the skills of the labors.

So, in the RMG Industry the basic 8,000 BDT/ Month is determined as—4,100 BDT as basic
pay, 2,500 BDT as house rent, 600 BDT as medical allowance, 350 BDT as transport allowance
and rest of the remainder, which is 900 BDT is taken as the food allowance.

Other calculations:

1. Overtime: Half of the normal wage rate is to be added for every overtime duty.

2. Bonuses are added but it varies from organization to organization.

3. Working on weekends of holidays and public holidays, the wage rate for those worked hours
are doubled of the set wage rate.

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 Legislation regarding wages (recent changes):
Legislation regarding wages (Recent changes) Bangladesh Labor Act 2006 was enacted with the
rapid expansion of the RMG sector with a view to amend and consolidate the laws relating to
employment of workers, although there is no separate law for consolidating RMG Labor Laws in
Bangladesh. This law also covers workers and employer relationship, injury compensation,
determining minimum rates of wages, payment of wages, trade union formation, health, safety,
industrial dispute settlement, conditions of working etc. From time to time several amendments
were also made to make the law more efficient and effective. There is a recent report from
Human Rights Watch which stipulates that, fire and safety factory inspections continued in the
garment industry following the agreement between big brands and Bangladesh government
arising out of the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster. In reaction to the disastrous collapse of the Rana
Plaza Factory in April 2013, there was an urgent need to take a step to stop such tragic incident
from happening again. As a result, the” Compact for Continuous Improvements in labor Rights
and Factory Safety in the Ready-Made Garment and Knitwear Industry in Bangladesh”
(Sustainability Compact) was built with a view to achieve short- and long-term commitments.
Three inter-linked pillars were identified. They are: 1) Respect for labor rights; 2) Structural
integrity of buildings and occupational safety and health; and 3) Responsible business conduct.
The government of Bangladesh, European Union (EU), the United States (US), Canada and the
International Labor Organization (ILO) got engaged in this joint initiative in order to promote
continuous improvements in labor rights and factory safety in the readymade garment industry in
Bangladesh. This joint initiative was initiated with a view to prevent the disastrous tragedy like
Rana Plaza from happening ever again.

Wage comparison with other industrialized nations

Bangladesh is a fertile field for RMG sector. It has brought revolutionary to its economy
contributing about 81% to its total foreign income which was 3.89% in 1980-81. It has the
minimum cost for labor in production of clothing products in global perspective. For this high-
quality production of clothes and lowest labor cost makes our country competitive with other
industrialized nations. In Bangladesh, as per the law enforcement in 2018, the minimum wages
are tk.8000(US $96) from tk. 5300(US $63) which was enforced in 2013. But globally

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 Bangladesh has the lowest labor cost compare to other countries. A new study shows that three
Asian countries, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Cambodia, and the small East African nation of
Djibouti, have the world’s lowest labor costs measured as a combination of wages, employment
regulations, social security contributions and labor productivity. The study was released in
February 2015, a UK-based risk analysis and strategic research firm, and ranked Myanmar 171,
Bangladesh 170 and Cambodia 169 on a list comprising 172 economies.

Labor cost comparison between Bangladesh and other production nations

  Bangladesh China Cambodia Vietnam Myanmar

Minimum wage  $101 $518 $170 $234 $135

Labor force as of 2015 79 809 243 54 30

(million)

Average compensation 120 806 310 250 92

per worker (US$/ month)

Fringe benefits and social  30 30-56 32 40-50 N/A

securities (US$/month) 

The 10 highest labor-cost countries in the study are all in Europe, with the top five most
expensive being Italy, France, Belgium, Spain and Finland.

Clean Clothes Campaign

The clean clothes campaign is the garment industry’s largest alliance of labor union and non-
labor governmental organization founded in 1989. Its headquarters are located at Amsterdam,
Netherlands. The civil society campaign focuses on the improvement of working conditions in
the garment and sportswear industries.

Accord Int.

ACCORD stands for Action for Community Organization Rehabilitation and Development.

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The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Accord) was signed on 15 May
2013. It is a five-year independent, legally binding agreement between global brands and
retailers and trade unions designed to build a safe and healthy Bangladeshi Ready Made
Garment (RMG) Industry. The agreement was created in the immediate aftermath of the
Rana Plaza building collapse that led to the death of more than 1100 people and injured more
than 2000. In June 2013, an implementation plan was agreed leading to the incorporation of the
Bangladesh Accord Foundation in the Netherlands in October 2013. It is an example of project-
oriented multi stakeholder governance.
The agreement consists of six key components:

1. A five-year legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to ensure a safe
working environment in the Bangladeshi RMG industry
2. An independent inspection program supported by brands in which workers and trade
unions are involved
3. Public disclosure of all factories, inspection reports and corrective action plans (CAP)
4. A commitment by signatory brands to ensure sufficient funds are available for
remediation and to maintain sourcing relationships
5. Democratically elected health and safety committees in all factories to identify and act on
health and safety risks
6. Worker empowerment through an extensive training program, complaints mechanism and
right to refuse unsafe work.
Creation of the accord:

The accord was sponsored and created by the Industrial Global Union and the UNI Global
Union in alliance with leading NGOs, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Workers’ Rights
Consortium. It is an expanded version of an earlier 2-year accord that had been signed only
by PVH and Tchibo.

Following the 2013 Savar building collapse on 24 April 2013 that resulted in over 1,100 deaths,
there was wide global interest by both the consuming public and clothing retailers in establishing
enforceable standards for fire and building safety in Bangladesh. The German government
sponsored a meeting of retailers and NGOs at the beginning of May, and the meeting set a

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deadline of midnight of 16 May 2013 to sign up to the agreement. Numerous companies had
signed up by the deadline, covering over 1,000 Bangladeshi garment factories.

Terms and Conditions:

In addition to schemes of building inspection and enforcement of fire and safety standards the
accord requires that contracts by international retailers with Bangladesh manufacturers provide
for compensation adequate to maintain safe buildings. Retailers agree to continue to support the
Bangladesh textile industry despite possible higher costs. It is estimated that the total cost may be
$1 billion, about $500,000 per factory. Close co-operation with the International Labor
Organization and the government of Bangladesh is required. A steering committee which
governs the accord is established as are dispute resolution procedures such as arbitration. The
accord calls for development of an Implementation Plan over 45 days.

Recent riot in RMG sector

In September 2018, the Bangladesh government moved to raise the monthly minimum wage for
garment workers - for the first time in five years - to tk 8,000 (USD 96), up from the previous tk
5,300 (USD 63). Many garment workers are dissatisfied with the increase, as workers’ rights
organizations and trade unions had been calling for at least tk 16,000. Others were unhappy
about a discrepancy in the increase between junior and senior workers. While workers claim the
increase is not enough to cover increased living costs, factory owners say they cannot afford to
pay increased wages.

In January 2019, thousands of garment workers staged protests for increased minimum wages,
particularly for those on mid-range wage grades who had effectively received no increase under
the changes. Some protests were met with force by the authorities. After one violent clash, where
police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds, one person was
killed and 50 others injured.

In response, the government formed a 'tripartite committee' to review garment worker wages and
on 13 January the committee agreed to modest wage increases to the lower and mid-range
worker grades. The gross monthly wage of tk 8,000 proposed in September remained unchanged.

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Following this development, manufacturers urged workers to return to work, however thousands
of workers continued to protest, rejecting the pay hike as insufficient.

Mass dismissals as part of a widespread crackdown following the protests have seen
approximately 12,000 workers dismissed, accused by factory owners of looting and vandalism.
Several of the dismissed workers have also had charges brought against them, which have been
described by rights groups as 'baseless'.

Metro Knitting & Dyeing Mills Ltd. was named in a media report as one of the factories who had
dismissed workers. In February 2019, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Fast
Retailing, who source from Metro Knitting, to respond. The response is included below.

In a statement (included below), H&M - which sources from three factories that have dismissed
workers - said it is "closely observing the situation" and the "well-being of the workers at our
suppliers’ factories are a priority."

In March 2019, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited further brands sourcing from
Bangladesh to respond to the mass dismissals and outline concrete steps being taken to remedy
the situation. You can read the full story and responses.

In April 2019, an analysis by Workers Rights Consortium found that the mass dismissals,
violence and arrests following the protests were 'unlawful' and called on brands sourcing from
Bangladesh to: withdraw criminal complaints filed in relation to the protests; reinstate and
provide back wages to all workers terminated or forced to resign; and commit to a
nondiscriminatory hiring process to end the blacklisting of workers based on their involvement
in the protests. In October 2019, charges filed by Hameem Group and Sin Shin Apparels against
workers were dropped and several other factories reportedly filed a petition to withdraw their
charges. At least 25 other cases are still underway.
 

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 Problem Analysis
The position of Bangladesh stating the minimum wages is diversified as well as intricate,
because of its being a source of cheap labor and the prevalence of unemployment in a massive
scale. Here, a laborer gets the lowest wage comparatively other countries of the world for his
service on the basis of his efficiency. Though the capability of laborers differs from person to
person but their basic needs are almost same. So, the main problem of our RMG sectors is wage
structure. Thus, labor strike is the common practice in Bangladesh among the laborer.

The last strike was in January 2019, the workers went on strikes demanding about increasing
their salaries 16,000 taka from 8,000 taka. Though Bangladesh government has tried to solve this
issue by raising the worker's minimum wage to 8000 takas earlier but the cost of living has been
increasing gradually. Thus; demand of increasing monthly wages is obvious, creating the laborer
unrest. There are also some untold issues those need to be solved for both the workers and the
owner’s satisfaction to stay productive.

Wage discrimination:

The most and common practice of the RMG industries of Bangladesh is wages discrimination.
Most of the time the white-collar workers withdraw more than 100 times monthly salaries along
with other benefits than the blue-collar workers. This drives the low- level workers reluctant
from the work, create jealousness among them, consequently less productivity of worker by
unrest in the production environment of the organization. Moreover, a successful organization
practice few common formulas to reduce discrimination of salaries or wages. By reading the
mind of the most employees and workers, a factory creates hierarchical organogram where
wages discrimination is not visible. As; in those cases; some top and mid-level employees are
more efficient in their respective job fields, so they deserve higher salaries. Thus, the owners
keep personal contact with those employees, and pay them cash incentive secretly.

Improper working environment:

Taking the advantages of workers’ poverty and ignorance the owners forced them to work in
unsafe and unhealthy workplace overcrowded with workers beyond the capacity of the factory
floor and improper ventilation. Most of the garment factories in our country lack the basic

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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 is the first priority and this attitude has gone to such an extent that
they do not care about their lives.

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.

The 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 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.

Unit labor cost:

Garment labor productivity per hour is still lower in Bangladesh. Being the second-largest
garment exporter, is also the second lowest in terms of productivity which, according to the data,
is valued at $3.4. On the other hand, the largest garment exporter China's per hour productivity is
calculated at $11.1, followed by Sri Lanka at $15.9, followed by Indonesia $12.3 and the
Philippines $8.7. India, Vietnam and Myanmar are also the higher which are $7.5, $4.7 and $4.1

16 
 
respectively, according to Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI). The labor
productivity gap between Bangladesh and China is 69 per cent.

Safety Problems:

 Lack of sufficient fire exit

 Doors, opening along escape routes, are not fire resistant
 Adequate doors as well as adequate staircases are not provided to aid quick exit
 Lack of proper exit route to reach the place of safety
 Insufficient first-aid kit
 No medical insurances

Political crisis:

Political instability has always been a burning question for Bangladesh. Neither Bangladesh nor
the people have seen a political stable condition even after four decades of its independence.
Like other sectors (agriculture, health etc.) garments sector more specifically RMG sector is the
worst victim of political instabilities. RMG sector is said to be the strongest root of the economy
of Bangladesh contributing more than 13%of GDP and almost 80% in its foreign exchange. As
said earlier, it is the worst victim, the main problems are order cancellation, price discounts,
delayed shipment, lead time increases, additional air shipment costs, transportation and most
importantly efficiency and effectiveness of both organization and its workers and employees and
so on. The most dangerous thing is that the buyers are shifting their orders to others countries
like Vietnam, India etc. If this situation continues for another 5 to 10 years, there’s a huge
possibility of losing some foreign buyers forever and also create a bigger threat to our economy.

17 
 
 Sustainable Solutions

However, the situation should be improvised as early as possible. Though, the improvisation of
the political instable conditions is a tough task, the government and the factories can seek
alternatives. Some alternative ways have been implemented yet more works to done.
Government interpretations have become a crying need to solve these issues in the RMG sector.
More or less other steps should also be taken as early as possible.

Long Term Impacts:

From top to mid-level management need not to be well conversed and communicative only, with
their respected buyers. But they should also gain expertise in understanding the needs and
demands of their labors. We can restructure individual factory’s hierarchical structure; including
labors training and create an environment; making labors feel as they are part of the
management. Such approach may result in decreasing labor strife, increase productivity of each
labor, thus higher turnover. Factory owners should avoid hard line policy and have to have a
patient and listen to labors as well.

The RMG industries need to establish training institute in the country, to train the top, middle
and low-level managements. Training makes human resource efficient; makes business
competitive, and creates core competences in complete supply chain. Industrial management
knowledge is most important for top and mid-level employees while proper operations of
machines by operators are crucial for operators‟ productivity. Regular basis training in Training
Institutes can ensures both better industrial management environment and higher productivity.
Higher productivity means high revenues, thus profits, which in turn could ensure better wages.
Thus, training significantly contributes to controlling Labor Unrest.

Short term solutions:

The owners and labors can do is to create common platform for owners and labors, where both
parties raise their problems, and therefore find instant better solutions. The platform should be
consisted not only with owners‟ and labors‟ representatives, but also experts from research
organizations (like CPD, BIDS) should be included for better performance of the platform.

18 
 
Owners need to be as much transparent as they can be with the labors and to show the strikes is
not productive way to deal with such issues, rather it is putting a step behind from the real
solution. This will create trust between the owners and the labors hence are more efficient and
effective in finding solutions.

Besides, monitoring process of the national inspection bodies should be flexible to some extent
depending on the location and factory size. RCC (Remediation Coordination Cell) formed by
DIFE should arrange meeting time to time to check the regular status of the factories. National
inspection bodies should be given special training as well as sufficient manpower so that they
can regularly maintain up-gradation status of factories. Last but not the least, we have to
remember that being a citizen of Bangladesh and for developing the country profile in the global
arena factory owners should be more cautious for maintaining compliance standard of their
factories.

19 
 
 Conclusion
Bangladesh has always been on spotlight when it comes to RMG industry. The industry has been
making the most important contribution of rebuilding the country and the economy. It helped
many of the population with jobs, income, economic growth and even a better life. However,
there are few issues which needs to be fixed such as, infrastructure of factory, knowledge about
work, wage discrimination, management system and work safety. The need for all those issues
has to be sorted out with deep concentration, so that the industry can progress smoothly and
flourish in the future. Throughout the whole process the country will have a better economic
growth which will lead to a better standard of living.

Recommendation
Security and wage have been the most crucial factors in the RMG industry as the workers do not
get a proper wage and sometimes, they are subjected to harassment.

 The worker should form a union and have their problems answered to the
government or strong political influence. So that their concerns can be heard and
government can take some necessary steps.
 There can also be bargaining with the government and employer for minimum
wage.
 Because of improper knowledge about the work, there should be a training for
ensuring proper knowledge about work.
 Transport facilities.

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 References

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