Developing more productive workers
Ehsanul Haque | Tuesday, 26 August 2008
A recent ILO report emphasised that 20 to 35 per cent of the labour force in Bangladesh engage in at least 50 hours of work per week. This is reflective of the tenacity of the workers in this country. The contribution of workers is a very big input in the production processes. Higher output and its benefits are the results of a motivated work-force ready to work for long periods.
Bangladesh is a country that has been blessed with a large work force and also their diligence. However, in today's world, economic progress is not only having a huge number of willing workers although this can be an advantage in lowering wage costs. Only having an abundance of workers does not guarantee competitiveness, especially in the vital export-oriented industries. Bangladeshi entrepreneurs will also need to increase the 'productivity' of their workers to survive and retain market shares under fierce international competition. Greater quality output from trained workers does translate into more competitiveness.
The significance of this crucial factor must be adequately realized by our entrepreneurs, especially in the readymade garments (RMG), which is the country's biggest foreign currency earner. Bangladesh Bank (BB) authorities recently urged the enterprises in the country's textile sector to become more competitive and to do that by mainly making the work-force engaged in this sector more productive in every sense.
It was found out that workers in India and China in some cases produce more in lesser time and produce better quality apparels in comparison to their counterparts in Bangladeshi readymade garments (RMG) industries. Thus, the owners of such industries in those countries have become more competitive in terms of producing more, producing more with less time and also making higher quality goods. This has been possible because the operators of these industries in these countries took pains to improve the productivity of their workers.
It seems that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs in general are lagging behind in both understanding these productivity issues and training up their workers adequately to these ends. It is not that all industries have been oblivious to this need. Some foreign-owned and operated enterprises as well as the ones of local origin are taking care to increase workers' productivity. But it is imperative for such practices to spread across the gamut of industries in the country.
Workers in different sectors in Bangladesh should be taken into confidence and explained how their higher productivity and efficiency in all respects are the prerequisites to meeting their demands for higher wages and other benefits. They should then be obliged to agree to a participatory framework in which management would attempt to systematically improve their productivity and efficiency linking any rise in income for the workers to attaining of the productivity goals. The government, on its part, ought to much increase the number of training and skill centres and run them either free or at nominal costs for those who would receive training there. In many countries of the world, government makes a major contribution towards training up potential workers for both the supply of the work-force and for increasing the productive capacities of workers.
Wages and productivity are coterminous and need to be made mutually reinforcing for self-sustaining growth. It is here that the trade union and the employers should come to an understanding for the sake of mutual benefit. The trade unions need to be persuaded to realize the importance of developing a work culture among the workers and be alert to new methods and processes that mean larger productivity and eventually more income and employment. The search should be for an efficiency, wage based, on the notion that there is a relationship between relative wage levels and workers' productivity.
Bangladesh is a country that has been blessed with a large work force and also their diligence. However, in today's world, economic progress is not only having a huge number of willing workers although this can be an advantage in lowering wage costs. Only having an abundance of workers does not guarantee competitiveness, especially in the vital export-oriented industries. Bangladeshi entrepreneurs will also need to increase the 'productivity' of their workers to survive and retain market shares under fierce international competition. Greater quality output from trained workers does translate into more competitiveness.
The significance of this crucial factor must be adequately realized by our entrepreneurs, especially in the readymade garments (RMG), which is the country's biggest foreign currency earner. Bangladesh Bank (BB) authorities recently urged the enterprises in the country's textile sector to become more competitive and to do that by mainly making the work-force engaged in this sector more productive in every sense.
It was found out that workers in India and China in some cases produce more in lesser time and produce better quality apparels in comparison to their counterparts in Bangladeshi readymade garments (RMG) industries. Thus, the owners of such industries in those countries have become more competitive in terms of producing more, producing more with less time and also making higher quality goods. This has been possible because the operators of these industries in these countries took pains to improve the productivity of their workers.
It seems that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs in general are lagging behind in both understanding these productivity issues and training up their workers adequately to these ends. It is not that all industries have been oblivious to this need. Some foreign-owned and operated enterprises as well as the ones of local origin are taking care to increase workers' productivity. But it is imperative for such practices to spread across the gamut of industries in the country.
Workers in different sectors in Bangladesh should be taken into confidence and explained how their higher productivity and efficiency in all respects are the prerequisites to meeting their demands for higher wages and other benefits. They should then be obliged to agree to a participatory framework in which management would attempt to systematically improve their productivity and efficiency linking any rise in income for the workers to attaining of the productivity goals. The government, on its part, ought to much increase the number of training and skill centres and run them either free or at nominal costs for those who would receive training there. In many countries of the world, government makes a major contribution towards training up potential workers for both the supply of the work-force and for increasing the productive capacities of workers.
Wages and productivity are coterminous and need to be made mutually reinforcing for self-sustaining growth. It is here that the trade union and the employers should come to an understanding for the sake of mutual benefit. The trade unions need to be persuaded to realize the importance of developing a work culture among the workers and be alert to new methods and processes that mean larger productivity and eventually more income and employment. The search should be for an efficiency, wage based, on the notion that there is a relationship between relative wage levels and workers' productivity.