The Working Conditions In Bangladesh'S Garment Industry Are Still Not Perfect

An expert said that Bangladesh Ready to wear The rights of hundreds of thousands of workers in the industry still need more efforts to improve. The majority of employees in Bangladesh's garment industry are women. They work in a bad environment that endangers health and safety, with long working hours and extremely low wages.

Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin, a member of the Bangladesh human rights organization Odhikar, said in an interview that Bangladeshi garment workers work an average of 12 hours a day, at least six days a week, and sometimes longer working hours if they rush out goods in an emergency.

　　 Ziauddin  The doctor said that in theory, they should be paid overtime, but they did not get it. "The working conditions are still in a bad situation in many ways". When asked about the recent unrest in Bangladesh's garment industry, Qu emphasized that the workers in Bangladesh's garment industry, who worked with all their strength, were paid only $50 a month, while the wages they demanded were close to $100.

However, Dr. Ziauddin said that the garment business owners' group in Bangladesh - the most powerful group in Bangladesh - has 37 members in the Bangladesh Parliament. Therefore, when the labor groups try to advocate legislation, raise wages and improve working conditions, "the owners will block from inside."

Dr. Ziauddin said that Bangladesh's garment industry has a great impact on Bangladesh economic development It is extremely important, but because of the poor safety conditions of the working environment, numerous fire incidents and other industrial safety accidents have occurred, and the labor rights of garment workers are not guaranteed. "In Bangladesh's processing export zone, there is no right to organize trade unions. In the garment industry, there is no right to organize trade unions. We believe that this is a basic right expressly stipulated in our Constitution, but the garment industry generally has no such right because the business owners are not interested in it."

When asked about the role of foreign large enterprises, Dr. Ziauddin said that several enterprises, like Carrefour, a French retailer, generally have their own physical stores, so that they can really control in many ways, and then affect the production plants.  ”

Qu said that the working conditions of large foreign enterprises seemed relatively good - wages increased slightly. Some enterprises provided employees with free lunch to improve their working conditions and working facilities. However, Dr. Ziauddin stressed that these conditions "are not standard practices, but exceptions rather than routines."

Qu also said that we do not think that these large foreign enterprises exert enough pressure to require Bangladeshi garment manufacturers to comply with specific standards. However, under great pressure from consumers in rich countries, they have always strictly followed the norms on the use of child labor. However, the reality is that it is very difficult to prove whether someone is 14 or 16 years old.

Dr. Ziauddin said that due to the small number of labor inspectors, it was impossible to monitor the compliance of thousands of garment factories with relevant specifications.