Bangladesh's export-earning readymade garment sector provides employment for several million workers an overwhelming number of whom are women. But still women highly occupy the production level--the very lower rung of manpower leader of the labour -intensive industry. Though very nominal in number, compared to their male counterpart, are seen in some supervisory role in recent years, they appear to be confronted with daunting challenges some of which are, however, familial in nature.
An in-depth view of the labour predicament shows though a supervisory status brings an income increase, women workers do not consider this pay rise enough to compensate for the new risks or barriers, including being subject to new forms of violence and harassment, risk of being ostracized from the community because it goes against social expectations, risk of not fulfilling family responsibilities and expectations of a new role, and risk of losing rights such as ability to unionize, access to mandatory childcare and the like.
They have identified these as barriers to upward mobility approaches, while social norms such as management preferring men over women to fill a leadership position or a job that requires machine operation directly impact women's ability to advance.
A lack of family support also discourages women from pursuing advancement opportunities in the industry and some of them avoid growing in their careers from fear of losing family and community networks.
An International Labour Organisation baseline study published in 2017 on Bangladesh RMG sector found that women, despite making up 58 per cent of the workforce, only 9.0 per cent of all supervisors and 4.5 per cent of factory managers are women.
However, labour leaders diferred with the percentage, saying that in 2017 or after few years, there was a rising trend of picking women in supervisory roles which, according to them, started declining later.
In the garment factories, supervisors are typically picked by line or production managers from the group of workers with the intention of reducing workplace harassment, thus indicating a far-from- proper management functional roles.
In general, women supervisors are portrayed as less capable of managing workers and are labelled with lesser leadership skills than their male counterparts, though in reality, this is not often the case.
Another study by GIZ, published last year, reveals that a majority of supervisors or about 70 per cent out of the surveyed 421 supervisors across key industrial regions like Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj were promoted internally emphasizing the value of experience over formal education.The average working duration before becoming a supervisor is around 5.51 hours which highlighted the sector's preference for practical experience and internal knowledge over academic qualifications.
The major responsibilities of supervisors are managing workers (96.2 per cent), meeting targets (84.3 per cent), ensuring quality (63.7 per cent) and ensuring harmony (58.2 per cent).
The study uncovered a significant legal ambiguity in defining supervisors. While supervisors and factory management view them as staff following the definition of supervising officer in the Labour Rules 2015, federation leaders and government inspectors disagree with this justification. Labour leaders argue that though supervisors should be considered worker, they are often considered staff though their salary is not much higher.
According to the GIZ study, in many cases, supervising power, as outlined in the Labour Rules, is not explicitly detailed in appointment letters and job descriptions, and even when it is often not practiced in the factory.
The average monthly salary of supervisors is around Tk 20,230, with a minimum of Tk 12,500 and a maximum of Tk 30,000. Despite their critical role, supervisors often lack access to labour organisations, they have to face verbal abuse while it is nowadays usual that an operator in production level protests verbal abuse or she has a mechanism to complain which a supervisor do not, according to labour leaders.
Moreover, female supervisors tend to work slightly longer hours than their male counterparts, averaging 10.2 hours per day, which underlines the additional pressures and responsibilities they shoulder, which obstructs them from going to the supervisory roles.
The GIZ study also reveals the same as it found lack of union support forces supervisors to rely on internal channels, like Floor In-Charge or Line Manager, which may not always be effective. Supervisors are hesitant to speak out because they are few in numbers, their jobs are insecure and have no grievance platform like Trade Union and Participatory Committee.
Supervisors confront several other challenges, too, including managing productivity and ensuring quality control under intense work pressure.
The focused group discussions of the GIZ study of supervisors revealed that the supervisors have to face verbal abuse from the management staff for productivity losses. They face the usual verbal abuses from their higher- ups and are sometimes to coerce workers into overtime to meet daily production targets, and in cases where they could not manage workers, the responsibility fell on them to complete the tasks.
On the other hand, they are also pressured by the workers as when the administration or production management takes any decision, it is the supervisors' responsibility to tell and negotiate with the workers. If and when the workers are dissatisfied, they (workers) first go to the supervisors and this intermediary position places supervisors in a precarious situation, where they have to navigate dissatisfaction from both ends. In absence of any workers, supervisors need to make up the tasks of that worker at any cost, which can be challenging.
Both the study and labour leaders highlight the need for a better support and training system for supervisors, particularly in addressing worker grievances and balancing workload, work-friendly environment.
The dual burden of managing extensive work hours along with household responsibilities is a common reality for female supervisors, with a considerable 88.8 per cent of GIZ-surveyed supervisors acknowledging this challenge.
Females significantly highlight household responsibilities and childcare as major challenges, while male supervisors focus more on issues like lack of leadership and stress management as challenges for females.
Since supervisors are not covered under the labour law, it is not mandatory for workplaces to offer childcare facilities to women supervisors, which makes the possibility of advancement even more challenging.
These societal and familial expectations not only affect their work-life balance but also serve as impediments to their professional progress.
There are also some health concerns that are notably more pronounced among female supervisors, with increased reports of issues like headaches and back pain. Labour leaders call for implementation of gender-sensitive health policies within the sector and enhanced training and support systems to address the challenges facing supervisors and amendments to some laws to ensure rights and benefits for supervisors
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