GROUP PROFILE

NAME

ROLL

REG

Md. Rezaul Haque

44

01914

Md. Saiful Islam

(saifulbba.pstu@gmail.c
om)

12

01874

Arafat-bin-Sultan

47

01917

Md. Jewel Hossain

(jewelpstu@yahoo.com)

20

01882

Md. Arif Mahamood

35

(rezaulpstu@yahoo.com)

(arafat_ah@hotmail.com
)

01904

(arifpstu@yahoo.com)
Md. Mostak-Al-Mamun
(mostak.mamun@gmail.
com)

29

01896

REMARK

Letter of Transmittal

2-Aug-2010
Md. Zakir Hosen
Assistant professor,
Department of Accounting and information Systems
Faculty of Business Administration and Management
Subject: Submission of the Report on Financial Statement Analysis
Dear Sir,
At first with humble respect, we are starting our report transmittal letter.
We consider ourselves very fortunate to prepare this report under your guidance. This has been a great
opportunity for us to study the ins and outs of the Financial Statement Analysis.
We have successfully completed our analysis. This report summarizes our arithmetical analysis and
assesses the overall scenario.
We must mention here that we were extremely grateful to you for your valuable guidance, tiresome
effort, and constant attention as and when required.
We shall be pleased to answer any sort of query you think necessary as now and when needed. We
would like to draw your attention particularly on the matter that there are always spaces for
clarifications of any relevant topic. We are always available to share the pleasure of discussions.

Regards
________________
Md. Rezaul Haque
BBA Program (Group: SYNERGY)
Level-02, Semester-1
Faculty of Business Administration and Management.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At the very beginning of the repot we express our heartily gratitude for almighty ALLAH. Then we
want to give our great thanks and cordial respect to our honorable course teacher Md. Zakir Hosen,
assistant professor, department of Accounting and information systems, Faculty of Business
Administration & Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, who assigned us to
prepare this report on Financial statement analysis and helped us with his support, encouragement and
expertise knowledge.
We are also highly grateful to those people we interview about our topics. Especially we are very highly
grateful to the interviewees, because without their kind permission and special co-operation we couldnt
able to complete this report successfully.
All of our batches mates, elder brother of BBA 5th batch have contribute a lot. We are also grateful to
our classmates who provide useful suggestions, books help to use internet, pen drives etc.

Md Rezaul Haque
(Group Leader)
On the behalf of Group Synergy
Faculty of Business Administration & Management

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction

Evaluation of Garments Industry

Bangladesh - Garment Workers Struggle against Vicious Exploitation

Labor-rights organizations demand safety in Bangladesh garment

industry

Most of the deaths and injuries were entirely preventable,

Bangladesh garment factories open after days of violence by

thousands over wages

The workers have demanded the minimum wage rise to 5,000 taka
($73) a month.

Labor unrest & power crunch takes toll on RMG

Labor-Bangladesh: Garment Exports Thrive on Dirt Wages

Bangladesh garment workers worlds most poorly paid: Survey

War on Want
Bangladesh textile industry

Garment sector in dire straits

Labor Unrest in Garments Sector
Contribution of woman worker
Agreements with Garment Workers not honored
Labor Unrest for Political Instability
Reason Behind Crises
Exploitation
Conclusion

Findings from the study

We get some major information from preparing Term paper on Garments industries of Bangladesh.
Some of them are given bellow:

 The Garments growth was very slow till 1977 and got momentum from 1977 to 2005-06 in
terms of number of industry.
The compound growth rate was highest till 1981 and the rate was very good during 1989-90 to
1994-95
In1994-95 to 2004-05, the industrial growth has been declined though the numbers of industries
have been increased.
Garment industries in Bangladesh have the number of machines upto 100 or less than 100 and
very few industries have the machine more than 200. It indicates that the small scale industries
have been dominated in garments sector.
The Garments sector also created jobs for about two million people of which 70 percent are
women who mostly come from rural areas.
In terms of GDP, contribution of garments export is significant; it reaches 12.64 percent of GDP
in 2005-06 which was only 5.87 percent in 1989-90. It is a clear indication of the contribution
to the overall economy.
The share of woven garment in total garments export has been decreased from 86 percent in
1992-93 to 52 percent in 2005-06. It is observed that the demand for knit garment is increasing
in the export market.
In the year 2005-06 a successful turnaround was observed in exports to third countries which is
about 16.57 percent of total export market and it was only 1.90 percent in 2001-2002. It is
expected that the trend of market diversification will continue and this will help to maintain
growth momentum of export earnings.
Bangladesh is in the ready garments industries since 1968 and it boomed in the mid of 90's. In
this sector here 25-30 million peoples are directly or indirectly involved.
According to data of 2003-2004 financial years, the export earnings of the RMG sector was
5686.09 million US dollars, which constituted 74.79 percent of total export earnings. The
industry, which started with only a few factory units during 1980s.
Now boasts 4094 factory units employing around 1.5 million workers.
Bangladesh has earned nearly $8 billion in 2005-06 by exporting garment products, mainly to
Europe and the United States. This is about 75 percent of total export earnings of the country
More than three-quarters of the $7.8 billion of Bangladesh's export earnings comes from
exporting garments.

Objectives and purpose of the term paper

topic

A clear objective helps in preparation of well decorated term paper in which other taking the right types
of decisions. Firstly the purpose of term paper is to meet up the course requirement of
Bangladesh Garments Industries present status and challenge due to resection of the world economy.
With the advantages of new millennium as a student of BBA program, to understand the
Garments industries is vital factors achieve proper knowledge about it. So, identifying objectives is
very much important. Our objectives for preparing this report are:
.

To identify the present situation of Garments industries.

To analyze the term Garments violence.

To learn about the contribution of BD Garments.

To increase the knowledge about the Challenges of Garments sector.

To gain more knowledge and experience about Garments sector.

Offer some recommendation.

Statement of the term paper

topic

Term paper is one of the important parts of BBA program. As business student we have to complete
term paper topics or report. Our report is Bangladesh Garments Industries present status and challenge.
By studying business, we must learn about history, the export system, the import system how affect the
business. We cannot answer these questions only doing classes. We require gaining practical knowledge
for achieving extreme performance as a business student. These reports make us interested to know
deeply and gather experience which will give us feedback regarding our current knowledge of business.
As an example, this term paper gives us a unique opportunity to know information about The present
condition of labor & violence of BD garments.

Limitations of the Study

As a student of BBA program at Faculty of Business Administration and Management in 3 rd

semester, we are quite experienced about making the term paper. But we are not very much expert to
make a term paper perfectly. Thus we have tried our best to prepare the report on the mark. At the
time of making the report, as the subject of term paper is new to us thus we faced with some
limitations. These are here as follows:

Lack of the facilities of the computers and internets,

Lack of getting proper information of the subject,

For the location of our university, we got some problems in finding the
information,

And finally, we did not have much idea about how to make proper use of
knowledge and time on making a term paper.

Procedure of the Study

Whatever we do in the world, we must go through some procedures or methods. While doing the report
we also follow some procedures.
This report is based on secondary data. Because of geographical location there is no garments
industry in the southern part of Bangladesh. So it is quite impossible for us to collect primary data.
These methods are
Internet browsing.
Newspapers & Magazines.
Telephone contacts.
After doing all of those, we submitted the report to the proper authority.

PERIOD OF THE STUDY: June-July, 2010.

Use of technology:
a. Computer, Internet & other technological tools.
b. MS word to process words as well as prepare the paper finally.

Introduction
The garments industry has been leading the Bangladesh economy since the early 1990s. Garments are
the countrys biggest export making up about three quarters of total exports, and the industry is a
symbol of the countrys dynamism in the world economy. The industry is also the main non-farm formal

sector creating employment opportunities for the poor. The greater part of the workforce is female, less
educated, and has migrated from rural areas. Thus, the garment industry is seen as contributing to
poverty reduction in Bangladesh by providing employment opportunities with higher wages for the poor
who would otherwise be engaged in low-wage economic activities in rural areas.
Bangladesh earns nearly $7 billion a year by exporting textile products, mainly to Europe and the
United States. This is about 70 percent of total export earnings of the country. The RMG industry has
around 4,000 units across the country. It employs around 2.5 million workers, 90 percent of whom are
poor women. Whenever the country is criticized for its high level of corruption and confrontational
politics, its garment industry is held up as a success story.

Evaluation of Garments Industry

In the field of industrialization, role of textile industry is found very prominent in both developed and
developing countries. The growth of garment industry in Bangladesh is a comparatively recent one. In
the British period there was no garment industry in this part of the Indo-Pak-Sub-Continent. In 1960 the
first garment industry in Bangladesh (Then East Pakistan) was established at Dhaka and till 1971 the

number rose to give (Islam, 1984). But these garments were of different type intended to serve home
market only.
From 1976 and 1977 some entrepreneurs came forward to setup 100% export oriented garment industry.
Both domestic and international environment favored the rapid growth of this industry in Bangladesh.
By mid seventies the established developed suppliers of garments in the world markets i.e. Hong Kong,
South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Srilanka and India were severely
constrained by the quota restrictions imposed by their major buyers like USA, Canada and European
Union. To maintain
their business and competitive edge in the world markets, they followed a strategy of relocation of
garment factories in those countries, which were free from quota restrictions and at least same time had
enough trainable cheap labor. They found Bangladesh as one of the most suitable countries. Available
records show that the first consignment of garments was exported from the country in 1977 by Reaz and
Jewel Garment. Desh Garment was the first biggest factory that started functioning at Chittagong in
1977. In fact that was the humble beginning of new joint venture garment factory in Bangladesh.
Thereafter many entrepreneurs became interested and started to setup garment factories following the
Desh garment and realizing the future prospects globally as well. Available records also show that one
of the reasons of the growth of garment industry in Bangladesh is the collaboration of a local private
garment industry, Desh garment with a Korean company, Daewoo. As part of its global strategies, the
Daewoo Corporation of South Korea became interested in Bangladesh. when the Chairman, Kim WooChoong, proposed an ambitions joint venture to the Government of Bangladesh which involved the
development and operation of tire, leather goods, cement and garment factories (Rock, 2001). South
Korean Company, Daewoo, a major exporter of garments, was looking for opportunities in countries for
using their quotas subsequent to the signing of MFA in 1974. Because of the quota limitation for Korea
after MFA, the export of Daewoo became restricted. Bangladesh as a LDC got the opportunity to export
without any restriction and for this reason Daewoo interested to use Bangladesh for their market. The
reason behind this desire was that Bangladesh will depend on Daewoo for importing raw materials and
at the same time Daewoo will get the market in Bangladesh. For this desire Daewoo signed a five years
collaboration agreement with Desh Garment. It included collaboration in the areas of technical training,
purchase of machinery and fabric, plant setup and marketing in return for a specific marketing
commission on all exports by Desh (Rock, 2001). The outcome of the collaboration of Desh-Daewoo
was significant. In the irst six years of its operation, Desh export value grew at an annual average rate of
90 percent reaching more than $ 5 million in 1986-87 (Mahmood, 2002). Rahman (2004) argued that
the Desh-Daewoo collaboration is an important factor to the expansion and success of Bangladeshs
entire garments export sector. In such a context, following Table-01 shows the trend of growth and
development of garment industry in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh - Garment Workers Struggle

against Vicious Exploitation
The struggles of 2006
In 2006, Bangladeshi garment workers launched a series of fierce struggles to improve
their conditions and pay. These struggles were joined by other workers from industries
such as jute, sugar and transport and at their height involved tens of thousands of
workers. In May, workers from the garment factories launched a series of strikes at
factories in the capital, Dhaka. The government responded by arresting workers and

sending in police and army units to protect factories and blockade areas of the capital.
Workers fought back by attacking police and the garment factories, many of which were
burnt.
At the end of June, the strikes and demonstrations were brought to an end with an
agreement between the government, the factory owners and the union, the National
Garment Workers Federation (NGWF). This allowed workers to organise and in particular to
have rights to join the union, to have one day off per week, to be entitled to maternity
leave, to have binding letters of appointment and to create a Minimum Wage Board to set
a minimum wage.
In September it became known that the Minimum Wage Board was setting the minimum
wage at 13.50 per month and was introducing legislation to set the working day at 10
hours before any overtime would be due. This makes the minimum wage about 5 p per
hour! These issues and the fact that most of the other concessions agreed in June had not
been implemented caused the struggle to break out again in October. There were strikes
and protests in Dhaka, which linked the atrocious conditions of the Bangladeshi workers to
the profits of UK and US retailers. They were joined by other workers who blockaded
roads, railways and waterways. In the confrontations with the police which followed these
demonstrations, one worker was killed.
The demands made at these protests indicate not only that the agreements of May have
not been implemented, but underline the atrocious conditions in which these workers are
forced to work. Demands ranged from asking for wages, which are paid monthly, to be
paid by the 7th of the following month (local media estimate that there are 300,000 of
back pay owed to workers by employers), to the right to organise and the right to have
one day off a week, instead of working a seven-day week. These demands were not met
and more confrontation appears likely.

Labor-rights organizations demand

safety in Bangladesh garment
industry
Sunday, 11 April 2010 00:00
Press Release
Amsterdam, April 11 On the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Spectrum garment
factory in Bangladesh, international labour-rights organisations the Clean Clothes
Campaign (CCC), Maquila Solidarity Network from Canada, and the International Labor
Rights Forum (USA) are calling upon companies sourcing garments in Bangladesh to
take coordinated measures against structural safety problems in the industry.

 Today marks the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Spectrum/Shahriyar

Sweater factory, which killed 64 workers and injured 80, 54 of which were seriously
injured.
The Spectrum collapse focused global attention on chronic safety problems in the Bangladesh
garment industry. From 2005 to 2010, at least 172 workers were killed.
Most of the victims were producing clothes for well-known international brands.

A fire at Garib & Garib Sweater factory in February this year quickly spread to floors filled with
inflammable materials such as wool threads. Workers cut off by the fire could not escape
because emergency exits were locked and materials blocked the stairways. The fire brigade later
reported they had had trouble accessing the building, and that the factorys fire-fighting
equipment was "virtually useless". Reportedly none of the security guards on duty knew how to
operate fire extinguishers or hydrants.

Most of the deaths and injuries were entirely

preventable,
Most of the deaths and injuries were entirely preventable, said Ineke Zeldenrust of the CCC, a
global network of labour- and womens rights organisations. As is all too common in the
Bangladeshi garment export industry, the factory owners had blatantly violated building code
and health and safety regulations, the Bangladeshi government had failed to enforce those
regulations, and European retailers sourcing from the factory had failed to detect the serious
problems at the factory.
More could have been done by all those responsible to prevent these disasters from occurring.
More needs to be done to ensure further disasters are prevented, said Ms. Zeldenrust.
In collaboration with Bangladeshi unions and incorporating proposals developed earlier by the
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and the US-based

Worker Rights Consortium, the group of organisations presented a list of actions that companies
need to take within their own supply chains to prevent future tragedies. Measures include
putting pressure on the Government of Bangladesh and the manufacturers association BGMEA
to take specific actions to address these industry-wide problems in Bangladesh.
For companies that were sourcing from factories where disasters or fatal accidents occurred, a
more systemic and time-bound approach is also needed to ensure that victims and their families
receive fair and timely compensation, said Khorshed Alam of the Alternative Movement for
Resources and Freedom (AMRF) Society in Bangladesh.
The organisations sent the list to brands known to be sourcing garments from the factories
where major health and safety incidents occurred, prior to or during the incidents.

Bangladesh garment factories open

after days of violence by thousands
over wages

Published on June 23rd, 2010

DHAKA, Bangladesh - About 700 garment factories in Bangladesh reopened Wednesday after
days of violent protests by tens of thousands of workers demanding better wages.

Owners lifted an indefinite shutdown of the factories after the government promised to stop the
violence, said Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association.

 The manufacturers decided late Monday to close their factories because they had no other way
to avoid anarchy in the major industrial hub outside the capital, Murshedy said.

Over the past week, thousands of workers took to the streets and attacked many factories.
Hundreds were injured in clashes with police who tried to remove them.

The workers have demanded the minimum wage

rise to 5,000 takas ($73) a month.

The current average monthly salary is 2,000 takas ($29) making Bangladeshis the
world's most poorly paid garment workers, according to the International Trade Union
Confederation, a Vienna-based labour rights group.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories that export mainly to the United States and
Europe.
Garment exports earn the country $12 billion. The industry employs 2 million people in
Bangladesh and is a mainstay of the impoverished country's economy
.

It has been hit hard by the global recession, however, and manufacturers say they're being
squeezed by a slump in demand and higher production costs due to an energy crisis and poor
infrastructure.

Labour unrest & power crunch takes toll on

RMG

units July 17, 2010 (Bangladesh)

Labour unrest and energy crunch has forced garment factory owners to sell out around 13 units within
15 months till March, while, many others are negotiating with oversees business people for factory sellouts. The factories which have been sold out during this period were SQ Crystal Celsius, Shanta
Garment, Ajax Sweater and Shahriyar Fabrics.
A number of issues such as dwindling profit, output scarce following acute gas and power crisis and
frequent labour unrest have caused sell-outs for factories. The labour unrest in sweater factories is due
to complicated payment system, which is based on the number of pieces workers manufacture. More the
number of pieces, higher will be their earning.
Therefore, many business persons have skipped ideas of expansion in sweater division. The industry
insiders said that, it is difficult to manage workers in a labour intensive garment factory.
An Ashulia-based complete export-oriented garment factory, Shahriyar Fabric Industries Ltd had been
sold to a Canadian T-shirt giant Gildan Activewear Inc for $15 million in March.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

Labor-Bangladesh: Garment Exports Thrive on

Dirt Wages
Date of publication: January 29, 2006
Source: Inter Press Service
By Qurratulain Ain Tahmina
Bangladesh's garment industry may have survived the quota-free global trade regime, but the $8
billion dollar profit it posted in the last fiscal year was built on the backs of 2 million workers barely
able to keep body and soul together on dirt wages.
Although international lending institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund predicted that Bangladesh's garment industry could shrink by 30 percent after the quota regime
ended in January 2005, exports actually increased 24 percent thanks to the highly competitive prices
on finished products offered by manufacturers.
But by the end of May end severe labor unrest had gripped the Export Promotion Zones (EPZs)
around the capital city, compelling the government to intervene and set up a wage commission in
which both factory owners and workers were represented.
On Sept. 12, a divided commission came up with wages for seven grades of employment, to be
implemented over the next three years. But the owners rejected the new wages, saying they are too
high to sustain the industry. Equally, the workers find the proposed wages too little for subsistence.
The situation remains tense, with sporadic demonstrations by the workers, strong words at owners'
meetings and messages from the government in support of the commission's proposals.
One mid-September evening, with debates on the wage commission's proposals raging, garment
worker Tania sat before her bowl of rice and curry made from chicken claws in a dingy Dhaka slum.
"The rich people eat chicken legs, and we occasionally get to eat the claws and even that is
expensive for my family of seven," Tania's mother, Rahima, explained to IPS between embarrassed
smiles.

Tania and her sister, both teenagers, are helpers in a T-shirt factory. This entry-point job earns
each a monthly wage of Taka 1060 (15 U.S. dollars) with overtime work bringing in another 500
Taka ($8).
The sisters bring in the family's regular income. The elderly father and a young brother work on
uncertain daily wages. All seven live in a windowless 6 foot-by-8 foot room in a barrack-like
building typical in EPZs. The rent is Taka 2,350 ($35) a month.
Shila also earns altogether around Taka 1,500 a month ($22) as a helper. She lives with a family,
paying Taka 1,100 ($16) for food and lodging."Eight of us live in a tiny room," says Shila. "The
morning meal is usually rice and mashed potato. They cook either dried fish or small fish for lunch.
Often it's just greens to go with the rice.
"These girls managed to get a tiny raise following the labor unrest in May. The minimum wage
proposed for helpers this year is Taka 1,604 ($24). The third year will raise it to $31 for helpers.
The existing monthly minimum wage of Taka 930 ($14) was fixed by the government in 1994.
Shabnam Hafiz, leader of a garment workers' association, puts it succinctly: "We only want enough
to feed and take care of other essential needs for a family of four.
"Owners say the minimum wage is given during the first year of "internship," and that after that
period a worker can bargain for more. But realities are different.
Halima, an operator in a shirt factory, has a monthly gross wage of Taka 1,700 ($25), but her
factory does not issue a regular attendance card that records hours of actual work."They cheat you,"
says Halima. "I work well over 100 hours overtime but get just about Taka 500 ($8) for that." She
usually works seven 13-hour days a week. Night duty is frequent and a pittance is added as special
allowance. She is fined Taka 100 ($1.50) if she is absent for a day or is late for three cumulative
days.
The latest proposed wage this year for the highest grade is $80, and $90 in the third year. Anisul
Huq, the owners' representative on the wage commission, told IPS that accepting such a wage
structure would result in many of the factories shutting down.
"Profit these days rarely exceeds 3 percent of the yearly turnover," claims Haq. "Since the end of
the quota system last year, the cutting and making charge on our income has been reduced by twothirds for woven wear."
Economist A. Razzaque thinks that, calculated in a different way, the real profit would perhaps be
up 10 percent. But he says that even a small raise would affect the industry adversely, because of its
very nature.
"To implement the proposed wages, a 500-worker factory would need to spend annually Taka 4.2
million ($60,000) more," says Razzaque. "That's a big amount for many." He adds that taking the
1994 minimum wage as benchmark, in the third year the proposed wages would reflect proper
adjustment to inflation.
Sweater factory owner Rafez Alam Chowdhury feels raises would not help unless the government
controls the prices of essential inputs.

"Acute electricity shortages have raised our costs by 30 percent. About 2 to 5 percent of our costs
are on account of bribes paid to various departments. Shipments are a mess and bank interests are
high."
Chowdhury adds: "The government has absolutely failed to negotiate good deals at different
international fora including the World Trade Organization (WTO)."
The garment industry contributes 76 percent of the country's total export earnings. And about 80
percent of the workers are women. While the industry thrived on cheap labor at the best of times,
cheap labor is now seen as the key to its survival.
But the events of May and June signaled a need for drastic changes. For days, the largest garment
zone of the country near Dhaka remained paralyzed with attacks from angry and desperate workers.
Hundreds of factories were ransacked and some were set on fire. Two workers died and hundreds
were injured as police responded with force.
An agreement between the government, owners and workers' federations on June 12 promised
better pay, a weekly holiday, proper letters of appointment, maternity leave, and recognized workers'
unions.
In June and August the NGO Karmajibi Nari, which works for the rights of women workers, ran
two consecutive surveys in 100 factories in and around Dhaka. The NGO's research and policy
director Ziaul Haq Mukta says working conditions are slowly improving, including regular hours,
payments, holidays and protection from abuse.
But Mukta is apprehensive. "Sporadic movements in the past failed to deliver results. This time
the workers saw that violence forces the owners and the government to take steps. In the absence of
factory-level unions, this could easily turn legitimate dissatisfaction into anarchy."
Although there are more than 30 federations of garment workers, rarely can any union work
within a factory. Added to that, the luxury cars and homes of factory owners are breeding
resentment and anger among workers who are forced to live and work in notoriously appalling
conditions.
Anisul Haq justifies the disparity. "If I drive a BMW today, considering my 20 years' turnover, the
price divided will be nothing per worker."
In contrast to Haq's lifestyle, Nurun Nahar, who works in a cap-making factory run on South
Korean investment, lives in a hovel on the fringes of Dhaka. She makes about Taka 2,500 ($37) a
month on which she has to raise two small children.
"The movement (in May and June) was for an absolutely just cause, but if the factory closes
down, how will I survive?" Nahar says with unerring logic. But she still cannot understand the
luxurious lifestyles maintained by factory owners like Haq.

Bangladesh garment workers worlds

most poorly paid: Survey
DHAKA - Bangladeshs garment sector workers are the worlds most poorly paid and their
rights are being abused increasingly, an international trade union body has said.
Poor wages and working conditions, and refusal of the factory owners to honour wage agreements
are also leading to frequent violence, Vienna-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
said in a global survey released here Saturday.
Absence of trade unions is adding to the problem, it said.

At least 100 people were injured and 10 factories and 15 vehicles vandalised Saturday in clashes
between the police and apparel workers, rallying for increased wages at Jamgara, Narsinghpur and
Nishchintapur of Ashulia in Dhaka.
Most of the injuries were from rubber bullets fired by the police, the New Age reported.

In 2009, six garment workers were killed in attacks by police or company security guards during
strikes or protests linked to wage demands.
Bangladesh is another black spot on the Asian continent in terms of the number of
workers murdered for establishing their rights, the ITUC said.

The government last year announced that it would facilitate establishing trade unions in each
garment unit. But the employers and their collectives expressed serious reservations.
Readymade garments and knitwear exports fetch Bangladesh the highest export earnings.
They stood at $12 billion in 2009.
The entirely private sector, running partly with foreign investment, employs three million
workers, mostly women.

Bangladesh had a national emergency and an army-backed, unelected government in office

during 2007-08.

The ITUC report observed that lifting of emergency raised hopes for an improvement in the
situation for the Bangladesh trade union movement and better economic conditions for workers, but
nothing has changed.

Experts New Age spoke to suggested that the government has to be strong enough to enforce the
labour rights related laws and conventions against the errant garment factory owners.

Besides working conditions for workers, safety conditions are also poor, leading to accidents.

Hong Kong Garments, a factory located in Dhaka, was gutted in a fire that took place Thursday
night.

Protests, road blockades by garment workers and clashes with police take place almost every day
in Dhaka and its suburbs like Gazirpur, Savar and Narayanganj over the demand for increasing the
minimum wage, Bangladesh Trade Union Centre secretary Wazedul Islam Khan said.

War on Want
In December War on Want, the anti-poverty campaign group, published a report called
Fashion Victims. In this report they recorded the results of interviews with Bangladeshi
workers at six garment factories employing in all about 5 000 workers. The factories they
visited supply clothes to retailers such as Tesco, Asda and Primark. The report catalogued
the appalling pay and conditions suffered by the workers in these factories and linked the
low wages to the enormous profits made by these retailers on clothes. War on Want
urged UK consumers to shop morally and not to buy clothes made in Bangladeshi
sweatshops. The report was widely publicised in the liberal bourgeois press which shed the
predictable crocodile tears over the vicious exploitation of these workers.
These arguments made by War on Want in their report exemplify the political outlook
of todays capitalist left. They believe that if only the few bad capitalists could be made to
see the errors of their ways and act morally the present system would not exploit
workers. If only, they tell us, capitalists could be less greedy then trade could be fair. In
short, they argue that if the capitalist class could be persuaded to act more morally all the
horrors of capitalism could be swept away. These arguments betray a complete failure to
understand the basis of class society in general and capitalist exploitation in particular.
They illustrate the feeble mindedness of todays liberals.
In reality, under capitalism, the exploitation of the working class can never be ended
since it is the life blood of the system. There is absolutely no way this exploitation can be
made fair as todays liberals demand. Capitalist society, like the slave society and feudal
societies which came before it, is a system in which one class exploits the labour of
another class. It is only with the creation of classless society that exploitation will cease.
The liberals do not, of course, want classless society. They only want the hideous
conditions we are seeing today in peripheral countries, such as Bangladesh, to be
improved. However, the profits of capitalists in the central capitalist countries, such as the
UK, are becoming more and more dependent on the exploitation of workers in the
peripheral countries and the capitalist class as a whole has no intention of lessening that
exploitation. The relocation of factories to areas of cheap labour shows that, far from
wanting to alleviate the exploitation of these workers, they want to profit from it while
they can.

Bangladesh textile industry

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in Asia with an average income per person of
approximately $410 per year. 30% of the countrys 149 million people live on less that $1
per day. It is in places like this, where labour is cheap and plentiful, that the labour
intensive industries of capitalism try to locate themselves. In 2005, $1.55 bn of Foreign
Direct Investment was made in Bangladesh. In the last 25 years the textile industry has
grown from virtually nothing to become the countrys largest industry. In 1977, there were
only eight garment factories in the country. Today, there are at least 4000, employing two
million workers and bringing in 76% of the total export earnings. Sales in 2005 amounted
to $8 bn. The industry is vitally important for the Bangladesh ruling class and they will do
anything necessary to maintain its profitability, including sending the army to protect the
garment factories. The ending of the quotas for the industry, which occurred with the
ending of the Multifibre Agreement in 2005, led to a reduction in wages as the local
bourgeoisie tried to maintain their position in the world textile market. Today, the industry
remains highly profitable.
The two million workers in the industry have, for the most part, come from rural peasant
backgrounds and migrated to the large cities, such as Dhaka, Chitagong, Narayangong,
Savar and Tongi-Gazipur. They are generally the first generation of proletarians and,
despite being paid such a pittance, they often send money back to their families in the
rural areas. The position of these new workers reflects the gradual ruin of the peasantry.
As in the textile mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the 19th century, the factory owners
prefer female or child workers and more than 80% of these workers are young women
between the ages of 14 and 29 years.

Garment sector in dire straits

Law enforcers lob tear shells to disperse

agitating workers at Jamgora, Ashulia yesterday. The workers angered by a shutdown of all garment
factories in Ashulia torched vehicles, burnt tires and vandalised some factories. The garment
manufacturers later announced reopening of the factories today. Photo: Rashed ShumonRefayet

Ullah Mirdha
The shutdown of all garment factories in Ashulia yesterday has given rise to fear of
economic losses in the manufacturing sector, although the owners have decided to reopen
today.
Apparel entrepreneurs said they were caught in a double bind, as they were forced to
keep their factories closed in the wake of a labour unrest, but the shutdown has cut into
production. As a result many run the risk of missing delivery deadlines.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said days of
violent protests created "panic and anarchy", and forced factories to close.
Angered by the shutdown, thousands of workers blockaded roads for hours and
vandalised vehicles in the industrial hub near the capital yesterday. The workers turned up
for work, and began protesting the shutdown, and attacking law enforcers, said police.
The labour unrest stemmed from the workers' demand for hiking their minimum monthly
salary to Tk 5,000 from the current Tk 1,650.
Now the owners might have to send shipments by air to meet the deadlines, which is
costly, said Delwar Hossain, deputy managing director of Ha-Meem Group, a leading
garment company hit by the labour unrest.
Another garment exporter said he might have to bear an additional spending of $36 lakh
to send shipments by air to two buyers. It costs $4.5 per kilogramme to ship garment
products by air, and the freight charges must to be borne by the garment factory owners,
not buyers.

Sector leaders said economic loss from the shutdown of about 250 factories will be
huge.
BGMEA President Abdus Salam Murshedy said he did not have an exact amount of the
loss caused by the shutdown.
But another BGMEA official said the loss might run into millions of dollars, as now it
might be nearly impossible for many factory owners to meet the delivery deadlines.
According to a report from drapersonline.com, a fashion news website, international
buyers Marks & Spencer, H&M, and Zara are facing the threat of severe delays in stocking
deliveries following the closure of garment factories in Bangladesh.
Ifty Islam, managing partner of Asian Tiger Capital, an investment bank, said the
minimum wage in Bangladesh's garment sector is the world's lowest. The cost of living has
been increasing 10 to 15 percent a year, but salaries have not been adjusted, he added.
"The owners must compromise, and need to cut profit to raise workers' wages to a level
which is acceptable."
The only solution is to increase wages for workers, but it will squeeze the profit margin
for garment factory owners. So, foreign buyers should understand that they need to raise
order prices as well, Ifty Islam said.
"We all should pay a little more. It will be a good balancing act."

PROTESTS
The workers damaged some vehicles, burnt tires, and vandalised some factories in Ashulia
yesterday protesting the shutdown, police said.

They put up barricades at Jamgora and Baipail on Dhaka-Tangail highway as well.

Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) rushed to the spot, and brought the situation
under control at noon. Road communication was restored after the demonstrators were
removed from the highway.
During the demonstration 30 workers were injured, said local residents.
Meanwhile, Labour and Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in a
meeting with leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and
Industry, and BGMEA said an initiative is underway to announce an acceptable wage scale
for the workers before July 28.
He however issued a warning saying any chaos in the garment or any other industrial
sector over wage raise will not be tolerated.
The government formed a minimum wage commission for the garment workers in
January, headed by Ikteder Ahmed. The commission held some meetings, but could not
reach any decision yet.

DEMANDS
An alliance of 14 garment workers' associations yesterday reiterated its demand that the
government must fix the minimum wage at Tk 5,000 immediately.
At the same time, it urged the government to take necessary steps to open the closed
factories in Ashulia, and to stop arrests and harassment of workers who have been
protesting for the last four days.

At a media briefing in the afternoon, Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, president of Bangladesh

Textile Garment Workers Federation, said the government must protect the rights of all
workers.
"The government took a three-month time from April 27 to fix the minimum wage for
ready-made garment workers. But no progress has still been made," he complained.
Criticising BGMEA for closing all factories in Ashulia, he said, "According to the existing
labour law, the association or an owner must give notice prior to any closure or production
suspension."
He also complained that the factory owners in Ashulia have been harassing protesters
using police and hired goons for the last couple of days.
The alliance announced a demonstration at Muktangon of the capital today at 4:00pm,
and demonstrations across the country on Friday.
Idrish Ali, president of Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra, and Moshrefa Mishu of
Bangladesh Garments Workers Unity Forum also spoke

Labor Unrest in Garments Sector

Labor is an important input in industrial production. This is truer in garment industry of.Bangladesh.
Mechanization and automation have not diminished the role of human element in industrial
establishments. In fact, the role of the workforce has become highly critical in garment industry. Nor

have the economic reforms belittled the significance of labor..Liberalization of economy has brought
labor to centre stage. Human resource is taken to be an important factor to increase productivity,
improve quality and reduce costs all necessary to survive in the competitive world. There are several
issue related to labor. They are trade union movement, wage policy and industrial relation. Industrial
labor in the garment sector has undergone important changes over the two decades. Most important
changes are commitment to industry, protective legislation, status of the worker, employment pattern,
growth of trade unionism, industrial disputes, political interference and in some cases unfair labor
practices. Despite the prevailing positive labor management relationship, the spiraling labor unrest in
the Bangladesh RMG industry started on May 2005 after a knitwear factory owner rejected an 11-point
charter of demands. The factory was completely gutted in the blaze. Protesting workers forced their way
into an exclusive industrial zone for foreign investors and damaged machinery.These workers
demanding unpaid wages and a weekly holiday smashed scores of vehicles and burn down factories in
Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka. Among the 250 damaged units, at least 30 were owned by foreign
investors in the Savar Export Processing Zone. According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association (BGMEA) nearly 300 factories, including 21 factories in the Savar Export
Processing Zone (EPZ), were damaged during the three-day crisis. The total loss of the garment
industry is around four billion taka (nearly $70 million). Many vehicles were also set on fire during the
unrest, which left three workers dead and hundreds others wounded. This is reportedly the worst
industrial rioting in Bangladesh in the ready-made garment industry which is the countrys biggest
export earner. The violence also dealt a serious blow to the industrys image apart from causing huge
losses. Some trade union leaders blamed the outbreak on accumulated anger of workers, who even do
not have any weekend. They alleged that some garment owners do not pay the worker their salaries in
time and overtime regularly. The violent outburst of the workers crippled the industry for many days.
Several quarters seen it sabotage behind this development. On the other hand, another quarters seen it is
an explosion of anger that remains unresolved for long. Protests over low wages and other exploitative
conditions continued in the month of June 2005 too. The 68 The Cost and Management, JanuaryFebruary, 2007.garment workers continued to hold rallies and clashed with law enforcers, leaving many
people injured and few dead. Defying a red alert imposed by law enforcers at the Dhaka Export
Processing Zone (DEPZ) and its adjoining industrial areas, workers were involved in clashes in the
Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur areas. The deepening unrest in the garment industry forced the foreign
investors to announce on June 2005 that they have shut their units as fresh violence flared up in the
Export Processing Zone (EPZ). Investors of 92 units in the EPZ said that they will not reopen the units
until the government gives guarantee of law and order in the area.They also requested the EPZ authority
to declare the EPZ closed indefinitely to cool off the situation. Leaders of the garment factory owners
also urged the government to form an industrial police force to ensure a secure working environment for
the apparel industry. They felt that the overall security situations in different industrial hubs were not
risk free despite the governments deployment of huge security forces. It was true that in the year 2005
the political instability has been made worse by the simultaneous labor unrest in the economic lifeline
of Bangladesh that is its garment industry. Initially the government and the industry leaders
underestimated the magnitude of the problem and tried to brush it aside by floating various conspiracy
theories.

Contribution of woman worker

Bangladesh is in the ready garments industries since 1968 and it boomed in the mid of 90's. In this
sector here 25-30 million peoples are directly or indirectly involved. These peoples are simply lying on
the top of 5 million garments workers whose are wroking in this sector from dawn to dust and to some
extent working till the mid of night. Here in Bangladesh 90% workers are female and they are simply
coming from the rural area. Now keeping themselves staying in this sector they have to live in the slum
area where living cost is the cheapest. They are taking the low cost food, free schooling for their
children if any stays with the mother. They cannot afford that much as they are getting the minimum
wages from their works. They are the efficient workers in the world. The wages they are getting that is
based on the local market standard. But the Buyers are paying too low prices that no owner can pay
more than that Now a days the buyers are paying attention on compliance of the garments factories
where the workers are the part of the compliances. But this sort of compliances won't make any better
result unless the owners of the factories get higher price from the buyers and pay higher salary to their
workers. So better earning can improve better living and better health to make better works. The
Bangladesh garment industry is the largest employer of women in the formal manufacturing sector. The
owners have been described, alternatively, as risk-taking entrepreneurs of a modernizing economy and
as oppressors of women in exploitative sweatshops. This article analyzes the literature to explore the
social, political, and economic contexts of this class and how women's earnings affect household gender
dynamics within a framework of exit and voice. It draws on interviews of these garment factory workers
to explore how work has different meanings for workers of different classes and how these perceptions
influence gender roles and practices within the household. The conditions of the 1971 war, in fact,
created the proto-capitalists, and the post-1975 economic policies of the military regime enabled them
to become capitalists. The work has different meanings for women of different classes and these
perceptions influence gender roles and practices within the household. Women from various class
backgrounds are employed because they can be molded into compliant workers. The multi-class
character of the workforce combined with the threat of layoffs prevents solidarity and makes

unionization difficult. Some single women feel empowered by their earnings. Most married women are
unable to leverage their income into greater decision-making power. But the income is essential for
household welfare, and women need these jobs. Policy recommendations involve national and
international actors; they Emphasize crches (day care centers), savings, and severance pay at the
garment factory level as well as the institution of global living wages and working standards by the
International Labor Organization.

This most flourishing industry of Bangladesh has its dark side. A large number of the units are located
in dilapidated buildings. In April 2005, an entire building, housing hundreds of mainly female workers
in the outskirts of Dhaka, collapsed. Sixty-four laborers, at work on their machines, were crushed to
death, and 84 injured. What is worse, most of these buildings do not have adequate fire escapes. On
February 24 this year, more than 50 people were killed and about 100 injured in a fire at a textile mill in
Bangladesh.
The industry leaders unite together to get support and benefits from the government, but they are not
equally willing to look after the welfare of workers. In the RMG industry in several places in
Bangladesh workers are paid their salaries two moths late. Overtime is imposed and in some cases not
rewarded. The rising inflation has reduced the value of wages. But the industrialists say that its the job
of the government to control inflation.

Exploitation of Workers
Unions say garment workers are angry over low pay and long hours. Wages in Bangladesh's garment
factories can be as little as $20 a month. Thanks to poor working conditions, employer-worker clashes
have been recurring in the textile industry. Workers often take to the streets with complaints of poor pay
and working conditions.

Uncertain Future of the Industry

After the end of the Multi-Fiber Agreement at the beginning of 2005 and the changeover to the new
World Trade Organization regime, it was feared that the Bangladesh's booming textile industry would
suffer as it would loose business to countries like China and India. But fortunately for Bangladesh, so
far this prediction has been proved wrong. In fact, the industry has continued to grow at a healthy rate of
20 percent. However, this does not indicate that the Bangladesh garment industry has become more
competitive. The reality is that this increase has been largely due to restrictions imposed on China by
the Western nations than to the ingenuity in Dhaka or Chittagong. The Chinese cannot be held back
after 2008, which means a completely different picture might emerge after that.
Industry also faces various infrastructural problems. Due to shortage of power and diesel industries are
not able to work to their full capacity. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association
(BGMEA) fears that production in RMG industry might fall by 50 percent and production cost might go
up by about 25 percent due to the crises. Due to power shortage shipments are sent through air, thereby
increasing its cost. Unfortunately the government has not taken any step to improve the situation. On
the other hand, people have been shot dead for demanding regular supply of electricity.

Worst Industrial Rioting in the RMG Industry

The spiraling labour unrest in the Bangladesh RMG industry started on May 23 after a knitwear factory
owner rejected an 11-point charter of demands. The factory was completely gutted in the blaze.
Protesting workers forced their way into an exclusive industrial zone for foreign investors and damaged
machinery. These workers demanding unpaid wages and a weekly holiday smashed scores of vehicles
and burn down factories in Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka.
Among the 250 damaged units, at least 30 were owned by foreign investors in the Savar Export
Processing Zone. According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association
(BGMEA) vice-president (finance) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury Arun nearly 300 factories, including
21 factories in the Savar Export Processing Zone (EPZ), were damaged during the three-day crisis. The
total loss of the garment industry is around four billion taka (nearly $70 million). Many vehicles were
also set on fire during the unrest, which left three workers dead and hundreds others wounded.
This is reportedly the worst industrial rioting in Bangladesh in the ready-made garment industry which
is the country's biggest export earner. The violence also dealt a serious blow to the industry's image
apart from causing huge losses.
A Rights activist and trade union leader Shrin Akhter blamed the outbreak on accumulated anger of
workers, who even do not have any weekend. She alleged that some garment owners even do not pay
the worker their salaries and overtime regularly. And in some cases, the employees loyal to owners cut 2
percent from the salaries and overtime allowances.

Agreements with Garment Workers not honored

A study by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) has indicated that garment manufacturers
and exporters in Bangladesh have yet to implement four agreements signed between 1997 and 2005 to
defuse problems following labour unrests. A number of labour leaders believe that 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. The factory 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. Protests over low wages and other exploitative conditions continued in the month
of June too. The garment workers continued to hold rallies and clashed with law enforcers, leaving
many people injured and few dead. Defying a 'red alert' imposed by law enforcers at the Dhaka Export
Processing Zone (DEPZ) and its adjoining industrial areas, workers were involved in clashes in the
Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur areas. The deepening unrest in the garment industry forced the foreign
investors to announce on June 4 that they have shut their units as fresh violence flared up in the Export
Processing Zone (EPZ). Investors of 92 units in the EPZ said that they will not reopen the units until the
government gives guarantee of law and order in the area. They also requested the EPZ authority to
declare the EPZ closed indefinitely to cool off the situation. Leaders of the garment factory owners' also
urged the government to form an industrial police force to ensure a secure working environment for the
apparel industry. They felt that the overall security situations in different industrial hubs were not risk
free despite the governments deployment of huge security forces. Speaking to media on May 25 acting
president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said, "We need
permanent solution to overcome this situation." The Bangladesh government on June 5 dismissed
Mohammd Zakir Hossain, chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), for
failing to adequately respond to violent protests at clothing factories. The government also promised
disciplinary action against several other executives.

Labor Unrest for Political Instability

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, this labour unrest has taken place at a time when the main opposition
party is also leading a movement for political reforms in the country. The 14-party opposition alliance
led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed called a 36-hour shutdown on June 13 and 14 to
press home its demands for electoral reforms, resignation of the chief election commissioner (CEC) and
two 'politically appointed' election commissioners, and to protest 'police atrocities' on opposition leaders
and workers during the Dhaka siege on June 11. The countrywide shutdown disrupted normal life,
affecting communications and economic and other activities. Hundreds of people have been injured in
clashes between protestors and the law enforcers.

Garments Violence in Gazipur:

LABOUR protests that spread from a sweater factory in Ghazipur on 11 May to Savar EPZ, Ashulia and
Dhaka on 22 May, erupted in state violence and vandalism by 23 and 24 May. Police action against
workers resulted in three deaths, many injured and even more arrested; the vandalism led to breakages,
looting, closures and possible lay offs. Violence is never a satisfactory method of dispute resolution nor
indeed does it indicate healthy labour relations.The industrys immediate response was to allege
instigation by political conspiracy or international competition. But to cry wolf evades an honest
examination of industrial management in the knitwear and sweater components of the garment industry.
Since the episode, many questions have been raised about the identity of the perpetrators of the carnage.
The answer does not lie in merely apportioning blame to external actors or seeking hidden clues as in a
thriller. The Home Minister has said that he had information, so he and his intelligence agencies should
speak out and tell us who did what, and why the state agencies were not able to prevent the arson. It
would be more credible, of course, to hold an open, public enquiry with representatives of the Labour
Directorate, BGMEA and BKMEA, workers and even organisations who support workers rights. The
report should be made public as soon as possible to put an end to unnecessary rumours and allegations.
Understandably the factory management is shocked, because it is not used to seeing labour unrest turn
so violent. It did not expect such an outburst from a docile, expendable labour force. Another reason
given is that the factories where the trouble occurred were relatively well run, model factories where
workers were fairly well paid. The comparative advantage of some factories is of course no guarantee
that workers will not agitate against glowing disparities between management and labour. On the
contrary increasing awareness of inequalities is a direct provocation. We should remember how a few
years ago, well paid workers in South Korea launched a massive protest against their company bosses.
For the industry it is more important to come to terms with its systemic problems of which there are
many. For the moment it has weathered the international competition and in fact received a glut of
knitwear and sweater orders which it finds difficult to deal with. Many of the problems such as delays
caused by lead time delays, late deliveries of imported raw materials, licencing or production, due to
outage failures, port obstruction, etc. are caused by government inefficiency and poor planning. These
may appear intractable, but are not beyond solution.

But what is of the industrys own making is its refusal to reconcile its commercial success with poor
labour relations, and its tendency to dismiss labour demands with unkept promises. For several years
now workers have repeated vital demands pertaining to their terms of work and their conditions of
work. Their major points of discontent have included the lack of an employment letter or contractual
agreements, a stagnant minimum wage set in 1994 at Tk 930.00, arbitrary fixing of overtime payments,
delayed payments, absence of weekly holidays, and non-enforcement of safety and health protection.
Conditions are even harder in the sweater and knitwear components because seasonal demand makes
for insecurity of employment, to long hours of work without leave, which practically leads to
compulsory overtime; piece rated work leads to uncertainties as to how much each worker will receive,
since the rates are not fixed until the completion of the consignment. When the owners proudly say that
piece rate payment brings in higher returns at an average of Tk 7,000.00, the highest range being Tk
18,000.00, this conceals considerable disparity in payments between one worker and another, with a few
reaching the ceiling but many more falling way below a living wage. Workers earnings have failed to
keep pace with the index of prices, and most live in a state of continuous debt, in order to support their
families.
Media attention on the recent episode has led to much breast beating interspersed with some rational
debate on the state of the industry. Newspaper reports and statements by business leaders suggest that
they may now be willing to recognise genuine labour problems: for example at a sitting with the
commerce ministry and workers representatives last week, BGMEA and BKMEA are reported to have
conceded the need to revise pay scales, to issue employment letters, not to enforce overtime. The
question of safety conditions was also raised. A few leaders have also admitted the logic of introducing
negotiating mechanisms, whether through trade unions or some other arrangement is not clear. The
absence of a grievance redress mechanism is precisely what allows the fuse to blow.
If these concessions are to be more than a reflex to shock therapy, serious attention has to be paid right
away to setting up a Wage Board to assess living wage in each sector, contractual terms for overtime,
hours of work, maternity leave. Safety has become an important consideration particularly after the
disasters of Spectrum and KTS, and it is no longer sufficient for BGMEA or BKMEA to make vague
promises without introducing strict regulatory mechanisms. They must make their reports on defaulting
industries public, for both the workers and the public have a right to know the risks they take. The
government regulatory agencies have been even more culpable because time and again they have
defaulted on their responsibilities to supervise and regulate violations of the laws. This has happened in
spite of directions by the Appellate Division.
Garment manufacturers claim they are now compliant with buyers conditions. This may go some way
towards improving working conditions, but only to the extent that it satisfies buyers. Last year, at a
UNDP sponsored meeting two task forces were set up by the government, the first to ensure proper
labour conditions and the second to ensure safety conditions. What has become of the decisions taken
by these task forces? Workers have a right to know the time line for their implementation.
Rather than piece meal measures it is important at this stage to move towards a more effective industrial
management based on progressive labour relations and labour participation in management. The culture
of military management, where security guards have little hesitation at drawing their guns on workers
(as happened in Chowdhury Garments, or in Opex Garments a year or two ago), or managers have no
compunction at slapping their workers in full public view is now passe. It will not lead to a healthy
industry, on the contrary it will provoke spontaneous, unorganised and, therefore, chaotic protests.
Many experts suggest that the time is right for the garments to institutionalise a corporate structure with

corporate social responsibility that can allow for a grievance redress mechanism. Suggestions have also
been made for workers to be given a stake in the industry, in its management, through participation in
trade unions
The crisis in the garments sector goes unabated in Bangladesh. On January 30, 2008 two workers in
World Dresses Ltd, Mirpur, Dhaka, were attacked and beaten by management staff at the end of an
evening shift. Khokon and Malek were apparently almost the last workers on the premises at 8pm, as
they were washing themselves before leaving. Five officials appeared and accused them of loitering
with intent to rob the company. They then beat the workers severely. As their condition deteriorated, the
management staff eventually took them to hospital; Khokon died at 3am, while Malek is still
hospitalised with broken limbs. Fearing unrest and attempting to hide the incident, management closed
the factory on Thursday, falsely claiming a failure of power supply. When knowledge of the attack
reached the company's workers, hundreds demonstrated outside the factory on Friday morning. When
police baton-charged the crowd they responded with stones and bricks. Ten workers were injured. As
the para-military Rapid Action Battalion arrived in the area, workers dispersed.
To illustrate the scale of events in the past two years: around 4000 factories in Dhaka have been on
wildcat strike, 16 factories were burnt down by strikers and hundreds more ransacked and looted,
pitched battles were fought with cops and private security forces in workplaces. These events have
ignited a wave of fierce class struggle in the garment industry up and down the country. These revolts
are spreading beyond the workplace and are absorbing the wider working class community.

Reason Behind Crises

The garment industry of Bangladesh has been the key export division and a main source of foreign
exchange for the last 25 years. The industry provides employment to about 3 million workers of whom
90% are women. The EPZs now employ 70,000 workers, mostly in the garment and shoe-making
industries (though most of the garment industry exists outside the EPZs). National labour laws do not
apply in the EPZs, leaving BEPZA in full control over work conditions, wages and benefits. Garment
factories in Bangladesh provide employment to 40 percent of industrial workers. More than threequarters of the $7.8 billion of Bangladesh's export earnings comes from exporting garments. Most of the
garment workers have migrated from the poorest rural areas into the city slums. The slum population of
Dhaka has doubled in the last 10 years (up to 3.4 million in 2006 from only 1.5 million in 1996
following heavy rural-urban migration). More than 90 per cent of the slum dwellers have income below
poverty line, which is Taka 5,000 ( 37.00) a month per household. The dwellers are mostly transport
workers, day labourers, garment workers, small vendors, informal traders and domestic helps. It is this
wider community that usually joins in the clashes and riots with the garment workers.
The global economy is controlled by the transfer of production, where firms in developed countries turn
their attention to developing countries. The new system is centred on a core-periphery system of
production, with a comparatively small centre of permanent employees dealing with finance, research
and development, technological institution and modernisation and a periphery containing dependent
elements of production procedure. Reducing costs and increasing output are the main causes for this
arrangement. They have discovered that the simplest way to cut costs is to move production to a country
where labour charge and production costs are lower. According to one report (see Editorial Section,
New Age, 30/01/2008) the hourly wage in Bangladesh is $0.25 compared to $0.35 in China, $0.60 in
India, $0.40 in Indonesia, , $0.40 in Pakistan, $0.45 in Sri Lanka and $2.40 in Mexico. Since
developing nations provide areas that do not impose costs like environmental degeneration on the
factories who make the mess, this practice protects the developed countries against the problems of
environment and law. The transfer of production to Third World has helped the expansion of economy
and also sped up the economy of the developed nations. Two non-market elements have performed a
vital function in confirming the garment industry's so called continual success in Bangladesh; these
elements are (a) quotas under Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) in the North American market and (b)
special market entry to European markets.
The MFA and special market entry to European markets rest on a system of clothing and textile export
quotas allocated to developing countries by developed countries. The industrialised nations established
these quotas as a means of protecting their own sectors in the face of increasing competition from
countries where goods could be produced at lower costs, such as Asia. The quotas allocated to highly
competitive exporting countries, such as the South Korean Republic, tended to be very limited, while
those allocated to those that exported less were bigger. This led clothing exporters to move all over the
world in search of the quotas available, contributing to the creation of millions of jobs in countries that
previously had a very small clothing export base, or none at all, such as Bangladesh. Indeed, as a
developing country reached its export quota ceiling, production was redirected to countries with either
unfulfilled quotas or no quotas at all. Some of these states did not have the infrastructure needed for the
harmonious development of this sector, but still saw a rise in the growth of clothing manufacturers
thanks to the quota system alone.
The MFA was renewed on three occasions over the years and was finally phased out on 1 January 2005.
The MFA expired and Bangladeshi exporters were no longer protected by the quotas restricting imports
of textiles and clothing from more competitive countries like China and India. The end of the quota
system led to the loss of 1 million jobs in Bangladeshs clothing industry. The Bangladeshi government

itself estimated that at least 200,000 to 300,000 workers lost their jobs. Millions of jobs in related
sectors of activity, such as transportation, button making, information businesses, hotels, financial
services and property companies went into risk. USAs imports of baby clothes from China more than
quadrupled in 2002, whilst those from Bangladesh fell by 16%. Other types of clothes show similar
trends: according to the government, Bangladesh has lost 33% of its export markets for the 29 products
removed from the quota system on 1 January 2002, mostly to the benefit of China and Vietnam.
Hundreds of garment factories were closed between 2001 and 2003 following the drop in demand from
the USA after the attacks on September 11 2001. As the import of Chinese goods increased, the USA
also started to buy more clothes from Caribbean and sub-Saharan African countries, which have
recently been granted customs-free access to this market for their clothes. At the same time, the USA
has kept high taxes on clothes imported from Bangladesh. In 2002, Bangladesh paid almost the same
amount in tax on its 2.4 billion dollars of clothes exports to the USA (approximately 330 million
dollars) as France for its 24 billion million dollars of exports to the USA. The other major market for
Bangladeshi exporters, the European Union (EU), has scrapped import dues though only on a few
clothes containing a certain proportion of materials with the made in Bangladesh label.Solely
concerned with making profits, Bangladeshi garments employers are quick to accept orders even when
they know it will be very difficult to deliver them on time. They put pressure on employees to do a lot
of overtime. Given the low basic wages, the workers are forced to agree to do this overtime. However
the fatigue that the latter produces adds to the existing bad health of many workers in this sector and to
a reduction in the quality of products and in the companies productivity. That has gone worse since the
government has recently announced that it would increase the amount of authorised overtime and
reduce the restrictions on womens night work.
The textile and clothing companies in Bangladesh are some of the most hostile towards recognition of
workers union rights. Out of 3,000 textile firms that produce for the export market barely 127 have an
officially registered union and less than a dozen employers have serious negotiations with unions.
Workers are frequently victims of sackings, beatings or false accusations by the police of militancy
within their unions. Workers who try to set up a union are not protected before its registration and so are
often subjected to harassment from their employers, which sometimes assume a violent form with
police support. The names of workers asking to register a union are often passed on to employers, who
quickly try to transfer or sack them, above all in the textile sector. Even once a union has been
registered those workers suspected of activism are subjected to frequent harassment. Majority of trade
unions in Bangladesh have direct or indirect links with local and foreign Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs), and receiving lucrative grants seem to be their main goal. Most of the trade
unions appear to be tools of main political parties, strikes being used more as vehicles for pursuing
political goals against rival parties rather than improving workers' conditions.
Minimum wage for the workers is now Taka 950 (7.00) a month that was fixed around 12 years ago.
Nearly all workers in the Bangladesh garment industry work for little more than starvation wages, under
conditions closer to those endured by European workers 150-200 years ago. Physical and sexual abuse
in the workplace is common where most are girls as young as 12 years old. Over time is often
compulsory and wages are sometimes withheld for months. The condition is worse outside the EPZs
where 80% of the garments workers are employed (see http://www.libcom.org/).

Exploitation
To stay in the international competition without any quota system in place, the garment employers are
sucking the blood out of the workers. The minimum wage hasnt improved for years and with no clear
trade union intervention regarding this matter, employers are exploiting workers at will. The easiest way
the system can extract surplus value is by prolonging the working hours. This is a classic example of
extracting absolute surplus value. In Capital Vol 1, Marx mentions:
There is a limit in increasing the total working hours. It has serious impact on the health of the workers,
resulting in inefficiency. A study carried out in 2003 by a Bangladeshi institute on over 800 textile
workers discovered that 42% of women workers and 24% of their male counterparts are suffering from
chronic diseases (such as gastro-intestinal infections, urinary complaints, blood pressure problems and
anaemia, etc.). 45% of the women and 36% of the men who were interviewed said they felt weak,
whilst 3% of the women and 4% of the men had fainted in the months prior to their interviews. Their
weakened state is causing major losses of productivity but has not encouraged the bosses to make
radical improvements to the situation
This is not the end of the plight of the workers. With huge job losses in the garments sector women
workers are the most vulnerable. It can be said that trafficking of Bangladeshi girls to foreign countries
could increase as the number of jobs falls in the textile industry. The prospect of getting a job in this
sector in Dhaka or other major cities attracts tens of thousands of young women from rural areas, who
are determined not to return to their villages without having succeeded in earning a lot of money. The
traffickers are well aware that these young women are in a very vulnerable position. In most cases these
women have no idea of the risk they run of ending up in foreign prostitution networks. The traffickers
sell these girls for around 100 to 400 US dollars. India, Pakistan and some Arab countries are the main
destinations for these smuggled girls. sssssssssss

RECOMMENDATION
As a developing country Bangladesh has some problem and some rising sector. Garments sector is one
the most rising sector of them.
Proper salary should be given.
A large number of employments created by BD garments.
Sometimes garments violence makes garments production hampered.
Apply strict rules and regulation.ss
Political stability is in need.
Proper salaries should be provided to garments workers

Then garments arises as a dream sector.

Conclusion
Bangladesh has earned nearly $8 billion in 2005-06 by exporting garment products, mainly to
Europe and the United States. This is about 75 percent of total export earnings of the country.
The RMG industry has around 4,250 units across the country. It employs more than 2 million
workers, most of whom are poor women. Whenever the country is criticized for its high level of
corruption and confrontational politics, its garment industry is held up as a success story.
Bangladeshs exports are heavily concentrated in the RMG sector, which has been a main driver
of growth and poverty reduction. The challenge is therefore to improve competitiveness, both in
the RMG sector and economy wide, and diversify exports. Garment industry in Bangladesh has
been facing multidimensional problems since its establishment. Acute power crisis followed by
non tariff restriction, chronic labor unrest,
lack of infrastructural facilities, inadequate supply of material and accessories, inability .
Due to power shortage shipments are sent through air, thereby increasing its cost. Unfortunately
the government has not taken any step to improve the situation.
On the other hand, people have been shot dead for demanding regular supply of electricity. In
this context, it is still right time to devote all out efforts by the relevant agencies and authority as
to expansion and solutions of numerous problems that it faces now. Then we will get Garments
as a Dream Sector.

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