ASSIGNMENT 2:

A case on the industrial relations in Bangladesh in the

HRM 524: Industrial Relations

Submitted By:
K.G. Erfan Uddin
ID : 2019-1-95-093

Submitted To:
Dr. Md. Mesbah Uddin

Submission Date:
6th December 2020
Being in the corona war, policymakers worldwide are engaged in damage-control of the
economic losses at the moment and preparing for confronting the upcoming economic crisis. In
addition, there are evidences and indications that financial and banking industries around the
globe are facing remarkable instability due to COVID-19.

Like many countries around the world, Bangladesh used the stay-at-home (or lockdown) orders
to prevent the spread of COVID-19 between late March and the end of May 2020. About 96 per
cent of families with low socio-economic status experienced a reduction in their average
monthly earnings during the 'lockdown' period. It also showed that about 91 per cent of
families considered themselves to be financially unstable, 47 per cent saw their earnings drop
below the international poverty line of Tk160 (US$1.90) per person per day and 70 per cent
experienced food insecurity and 15 per cent either ran out of food or remained hungry or
missed meals. It is of concern that among the women who reported emotional, physical or
sexual violence from their intimate partners, more than half reported that violence had
increased since lockdown.

Now, if we turn around our eyes to the industrial sector-which is also suffering from the deadly
contagious disease. As we all know that, export diversification is always a key for sustainable
growth in earning foreign currency but regrettably we are heavily relying of RMG sector. This
sector asserts that, 85 percent of the country's' export earnings come through the RMG sector.
We failed to diversify our export basket, thus creating a huge risk in our export portfolios. The
response against the outbreak and its impact on the industrial sector is so far admirable, yet
this pandemic also poses an economic and humanitarian crisis. The prime minister was right to
identify this as a challenge and announced an emergency stimulus package of $8.5 billion
(equivalent to 2.5 per cent of GDP) for bridge financing of the working capital of small and
distribute food aid through Bangladesh's existing social safety programs as only 15 per cent of
the Bangladeshi population earns over $6 a day, and over 90 per cent of the workforce belongs
to the informal sector. As Bangladesh Government does not have enough fiscal space to make
large stimulus packages due to low tax-to-GDP ratio, the only possible option is monetary
expansion, which most developed economies have already deployed.

After announcement of lockdown Many workers came back to the capital under the
assumption that they would return to work on 5 April, only to find out that closure would
continue until 12 April. On 7 April, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi urged factory owners to
pay the salary for the month of March to their workers before 16 April. ‘You (owners) can’t fire
any workers even though the factories remain closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the
country,’ he added. Garment workers of at least 11 factories in Savar took to the streets on 12
April demanding wages of the previous month, as some of them had not been paid the previous
month’s wages, which are supposed to be paid by 10th day of the month.

26 April, factories operations were to start with 30% of the workforce, advising to ask only the
workers living near their respective factories to join. In the second phase, on 2 May, based on
the success of following health and safety guidelines, factories may invite back an additional
20% of the workforce. local news reported that 1,427 other export-oriented units reopened on
26 April, followed by another 1,820 factories on 27 April. Despite BGMEA’s directive not to ask
workers (who are back in their villages) to return to Dhaka, hundreds of garment factory
workers left their villages on foot or jammed into whatever vehicle they could get to join work
in Dhaka and its outskirts, thereby ignoring the risks of contracting and spreading the
coronavirus.

There have been reports of factories where workers were found infected with the coronavirus. .
BGMEA published on 12 June that 299 garment workers (out of 4 million) have contracted
COVID-19. However, worker leaders raised doubts about the figures, suggesting these are much
higher as they suspect factory managers may suppress news about infected workers in order to
minimise the impact on the business.

Local media reported protests, some of which turned violent, in different areas over closed
factories and inadequate safety measures in others. Further, ‘some workers at Savar and
Ashulia saw that other factories opened but their ones remain closed, which scared them about
their jobs,’ said Sirajul Islam Rony, president of the Bangladesh National Garment Workers
Employees League.

Several factories have laid off workers, citing that orders from international buyers were
cancelled. Layoffs were based on provisions 12 and 16 of the labour law. Workers will get half
of their basic payment and house rent during the layoff period, according to the law. according
to local media, BGMEA said the factories that have no work because of the pandemic are within
their rights to temporarily shutter as per provisions in the labour law. Amirul Haque Amin,
president of National Garment Workers Federation, retorted that ‘laying off a worker during
such a critical moment is illegal and unjust. The reason being, workers will not get their full
remuneration, but 53 percent of their gross salary.’

More than 324,000 readymade garment workers have lost their jobs and 1,915 factories,
mostly subcontracting ones, have been shut since the coronavirus outbreak began in the
country in March this year, according to a Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies’ study report.
The study titled ‘COVID-19: Decent Work in Readymade Garment Sector, According to the
report, more than 26,000 workers were retrenched from 87 RMG factories during the
pandemic.

Workers continue protesting through trade unions have been leading protests in favour of
several demands such as wages, health and safety, job security, stopping lay-offs, festival
bonuses and vacation during the pandemic. They have gained international solidarity during
this period. Such acts of solidarity provide support and hope for national organisations and
unions to continue their struggle. The demands placed by trade unions and workers have been
met to a large extent. The workers received wages and some factories are following health
safety guidelines as a result of their activities. However, the print media did not highlight the
success stories of the protests.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put women garment workers in a more vulnerable state than their
male counterparts. SGSF reported a significant number of terminations of pregnant workers
while others continue to work in fear of losing their jobs. The federation’s President Nazma
Akhter told the Guardian on 9 July, ‘We are seeing a real increase in gender-based violence.’ In
response to gender-based violence (GBV), SGSF and Industrial Global Union joined forces and
are using social media to call out the Government for ratifying the ILO Convention C190 against
sexual harassment in the workplace.

Our government has announced bail-out packages for the recovery. Like, due to cancellation of
nearly $3 billion worth of work-orders, Bangladesh RMG industry got the attention quickly.
Around 2 million workers in the industries may be affected by this and on the other hand,
around 4 million people are directly engaged with the RMG sector e.g. backward linkage
industries, accessories and packaging factories and transportation sector.

The BGMEA is continuously monitoring the situation in garment factories. According to the
BGMEA website. To date (13 April), 1136 factories reported that it has lost USD$3.15 billion in
cancelled/postponed orders, equivalent to 976 million pieces. A staggering 2.26 million workers
are affected thus far. Initiatives are being taken to protect workers’ health, wellbeing and
workplace safety. According to The Business Standard, the factories that have reopened after
eid holidays will have to regularly practice health safety measures. These measures include:
temperature checks at the entrance, wearing masks, washing hands, using hand sanitiser and
maintaining social distancing when at work.