The country's apparel industry is now in a bad patch. All its success stories are now hard to sell to the outside buyers. A couple of disastrous events---Tazreen Fashion fire and collapse of Rana Plaza---have dented the industry's image seriously and made the situation truly difficult for both apparel unit owners and thousands of workers.
That the sunny days of the industry do not exist anymore is evident from the rate of growth of both woven and knit exports during the just concluded financial year (2013-14) and the inflow of orders from the international retailers. The export of readymade garment (RMG) recorded a very modest growth, around 15 per cent over that of the previous fiscal, during the fiscal 2014. However, it is hard to say whether the industry would be able to ensure even that growth rate at the end of the current fiscal.
At the moment, the industry is not facing any sort of trouble from the workers. However, the situation might change within the next few days over payment of wages and bonus ahead of the coming Eid festival. The industry being familiar with this type of trouble does not worry much about it.
But what is troubling the industry owners most is the compliance issue. Coming under intense pressure from their consumers the leading European and US buyers have embarked on a programme to ensure workers' safety and security at the Bangladesh apparel units. Two platforms of the international retailers---the Alliance and the Accord---have been carrying out surveys on flaws, structural or otherwise, concerning workers' safety in apparel units located in Dhaka and Chittagong.
This has been a good move on the part of the international buyers. For obvious reasons, the industry owners did not oppose the initiative. But it is hard to say that they have heartily welcomed it either for fear of the hassles that might crop up following the survey. Â
Some industry leaders have already vented their dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the international retailers' platforms working on the compliance issues in Bangladesh.
There is no denying that all the moves initiated by the 'platforms' in cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the team of experts from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) are aimed at ensuring safety and security of the apparel workers at their workplaces. But some of the well-intended initiatives have, unfortunately, have brought miseries for a few thousand of workers.
Nearly 3,500 workers, reportedly, have become jobless after the Alliance, a platform of the North American retailers, announced the closure of five RMG units following safety-related inspections.
However, as per announcement made by the Alliance and the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), these workers would be receiving half of their wages for four months from the $5.0 million fund created by the Alliance members' brands and the owners concerned would pay the remaining half of their monthly wages.
An office-bearer of the BGMEA has told the media that some displaced workers have already been employed in other factories and the rest would get jobs in new factories by December next.
But the objective conditions now prevailing in the apparel industry do not offer any hope for the jobless workers being absorbed in other factories soon. The employment notices that used to be seen on the front of most factories even a year back are gone. Apparel units are now interested in firing, not hiring, workers.
The Alliance has reportedly completed its survey of more than 600 RMG factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. Contrary to widespread notion that most RMG factories are unsafe, the survey has found less than 2.0 per cent of the factories unfit for carrying out operations. Â
Beside the suspension of operation of apparel units on safety grounds by the Alliance or Accord, a good number of units, some BGMEA leaders claim their number to be nearly 200, have been closed down by the owners voluntarily on the ground of lack of workers' safety, financial losses, non-availability of export orders etc. The closures have rendered an estimated 80,000 workers jobless.
In fact, there should be an in-depth survey on the prevailing situation in the apparel industry, detailing both its problems and prospects. This is an industry that deserves priority attention of the policymakers. Lack of regulatory attention to workers' safety and trade union rights issues has put the industry in a difficult situation. It would be a really tough task to get back the buyers who have withdrawn from Bangladesh following the recent industrial disasters.
zahidmar10@gmail.com
Uncomfortable time for RMG
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: July 14, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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