Violence in the Readymade Garment Industry in Bangladesh

Abstract

A substantial proportion of Bangladesh's export earnings is generated by the RMG sector. Despite of its growing success, this sector frequently experiences labor violence. Workers' unrest and violent protests have been a typical occurrence in the clothing sector. This study explores the causes behind labor violence and also endeavors to find out what extent it is due to labor right violation or any other major causes. By using qualitative research method, data for the study was collected from varieties of garment factories located in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Kamalapur. Among these, two factories (Mirpur & Kamalapur area) are considered to be non-compliant and one factory (Narayanganj area) is considered to be a compliant factory. Semi-structured and FGD have been used to collect data from workers, labor union leaders, experts and owners. The research shows that when it comes to protecting workers' rights on the job, compliance factories are in much better shape than the non-compliant factory. The result shows that the major causes of labor violence are insufficient wage, delayed payment, overtime, and absence of trade union rather than conspiracy in both compliant and non-compliant factory. According to the findings trade union encounter several challenges such as long working hour, corruption practices, and fear of losing job in meeting the need of the workers’ rights. Hence it is found that although owners and workers play blame game, it is quite clear from the received opinion that mostly labor violence is the result of long-term labor rights violation rather than any other causes including conspiracy. The owners claim that labor violence is caused by mostly conspiracies. Opposing the view of the owner, it has been found from the workers’ and experts’ opinion that labor right violation is the primary cause of violence in the RMG industry of Bangladesh. This thesis also suggests that adequate right situations be practiced in the RMG industry in order to avoid further legal obligations and potential acts of labor violence.