Bangladesh garment exporters don’t implement workers’ deals
Dhaka, May 31
Dhaka, May 31 : Garment manufacturers and exporters in Bangladesh have yet to implement four agreements signed between 1997 and 2005 to defuse problems following labour unrests, says a study by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS).
In one such unrest last week, between 200 and 350 garment factories in and around Dhaka are estimated to have been burnt or destroyed. The three-day violence led to three people being killed and over 100 being injured. Government ministers and leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) alluded to an Indian role, alleging that the violence was the result of “conspiracy from across the border.”
Talking to the Daily Star newspaper, several labour leaders said owners reached accords with workers just to defuse troubles whenever there was unrest. Instead of implementing deals, the owners even filed a writ petition against the government notification about minimum wages for labourers circulated in 2001. According to the BILS study, successive presidents of the BGMEA signed at least four agreements with different labour federations but none of these had been implemented fully so far.
The garment owners also did not implement the 24-point suggestion offered by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment in November 2000. The department pointed out 24 kinds of irregularities in the garment industry that went against labour laws. Inspection by the department also found that non-implementation of labour laws resulted in discontent and anger among the workers.
Delwar Hossain, president of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Oikya Parishad, said: “Actually, the owners come to consensus with workers federation when they fall in trouble like labour unrest. They use the deals as tools to defuse unrest.” BGMEA president Tipu Munshi admitted that some factories did not follow labour laws nor meet workers’ demands as per deals signed at different times. But most of the export-oriented factories abide by international labour laws because of the “compliance issue”.
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, assistant executive director of BILS, said, “The big problem is that most of the garment owners do not agree to obey labour laws.” The deals already signed are merely an eyewash to bypass the demands of workers, he added. If BGMEA leaders would have taken effective steps to make its members implement the deals, there would be no workers unrest in Bangladesh’s garment industry, he stressed.
