Apparel sector avoids recruitment of workers

Shah Alam Nur | Published: March 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Recruitment in the country's readymade garment (RMG) industry, the largest job providing organised sector, has declined significantly in recent times mainly due to the fall in export orders and the hike in wages, sector insiders said.
According data available with the research cell of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the RMG industry on an average recruits more than 0.5 million employees every year. However, the cell does not have data on the new entrants in the apparel job market every year.
In the last eight months (July-February) of the fiscal 2013-14, RMG factories recruited nearly 50,000 workers. The estimated recruitment stood at 4.00 million in the FY 2012-13 and 80 per cent of them were women, mostly coming from the rural areas.
The owners of apparel units said the new wage structure has turned out to be a barrier to fresh recruitment of workers. They claimed that they were facing problems with the implementation of the new wages. The drop in export orders in recent months has only aggravated the situation.
They said the most RMG units usually expand at least ten per cent of their production capacity every year to match with the growing demand for products from the buyers. But, this year, most of the factories could not even utilise their existing capacity because of the decline in export orders.
However, on a visit to different garment factories situated within the city, this correspondent came across many job seekers (mostly for the posts of helpers or sewing operators) waiting at the entrance of a number of RMG factories but only a few of them received positive response from the employers.
Managing Director of Nassa Group, a leading garment manufacturer, Khandakar Mohammed Saiful Islam said, "Now we are not recruiting any new worker because export orders have slowed down."
He said in the last six months their export orders have fallen more then 30 per cent. As a result the factories are continuing with the existing manpower, he added.
Managing Director of Standard Group Mosharraf Hussain told the FE that for business expansion the Group recruited more then 2000 employees on an average every year.Â But under the prevailing circumstances there is no room for fresh recruitment, he said.
Noman Howlader, factory in-charge of Sister Knitwear Ltd told the FE that during the last six months work orders dropped by more then 50 per cent and, naturally, the factory avoided any fresh recruitment.
Sabrina Aktar, a garment worker, said, "I was a quality inspector at a woven garment factory at Savar but last December I lost my job".
She said in last three months, she did knock the door of many garment factories but failed to secure a job.
Another worker, Parul Begum, said she has been trying for a job in garment factories at Mirpur for the last three months but has not yet found any job.
Â "Almost all of RMG factory owners have stopped new recruitment due to drastic drop in export orders in recent times", Vice President of BGMEA Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury told the FE.
He said a large number of RMG factories remained closed for the last couples of months due to non-availability of orders.
Mr Chowdhury claimed that that export orders dropped by more than 45 per cent in last six months due to a number of reasons including the volatile political environment.
The new wages for RMG workers have emerged as a fresh challenge for the RMG unit owners," he added.
Former president of Bangladesh Employers' Federation (BEF) Fazlul Hoque also admitted that the apparel units had been avoiding new recruitment due to fall in export orders and hike in workers' wages.
He said a large number of RMG factories that operate on contractual arrangement are now out of production for non- availability of orders.
Speaking on the issue President of Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employees League Sirajul Islam Rony said apparel units are now shedding jobs instead of recruiting new hands. He said in the last three months a large number of workers were fired by the factory owners.