Facing the challenge of global competition
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Ahmed Showkat Majeed
MASTER-servant relationship between an employer and an employee is now out of tune. Global competition has empowered the employees more than ever before. Wages are related to employees' productivity. Better facility from employers can ensure better performance of the employees. Employees' empowerment creates a competitive environment in an economy. If productivity falls compared to the benefits given to the employees, the net profit margin of the concerned enterprise will be reduced. The employer, in that case, will look for new employees from the open market offering them a competitive package of benefits to promote the interest of his enterprise. Similarly, an efficient but underpaid worker will be on the lookout for a better paid job. A competitive environment in the economy alone can ensure better performance or increased productivity of the work-force. Employees or workers would try their best to perform better for job security. Employers in our country are more powerful than the workers. In the RMG sector, workers are compelled to join factories on lower wages. One reason is most of the workers, already working, work for less than eight hours a day. One of the reasons, again, is that the RMG factories still face trouble in getting orders from overseas buyers. Declining consumer spending in the buyer countries, intermittent labour unrest in our RMG sector, quality of products compliance issues raised by the buyers etc., are among the causes behind the slowdown in RMG sector's performance. Some of the RMG entrepreneurs worry that China would grab the global RMG market. We need to make concerted efforts to get global market preferential treatment from the developed countries for over RMG products.
The obvious question that arises here is, why our RMG exporters as well as the government could not create adequate backward linkages in time? All the past governments as well as RMG entrepreneurs did not give proper and effective attention to addressing this need.
Our garment sector needs to face the challenge of losing market share to the competitor-countries. As the country's RMG sector face such a challenge, the real income has declined for the RMG workers. Hyper inflation has added to their sufferings. The RMG entrepreneurs, the government and the lending institutions -- all will have to do something to face the challenge and save the economy. Workers' representatives are busy in improving the benefits for the employees. Agreeable collective bargaining is the normal way for doing this. Negotiation with the entrepreneurs is the only way to protect the interests of both the sides -- the workers as well as the entrepreneurs. Creating anarchy or resorting to destructive activities cannot give a solution. Coming days would be tougher and more crucial.
(The writer works with ONE Bank, Khatunganj Branch, Chittagong)
MASTER-servant relationship between an employer and an employee is now out of tune. Global competition has empowered the employees more than ever before. Wages are related to employees' productivity. Better facility from employers can ensure better performance of the employees. Employees' empowerment creates a competitive environment in an economy. If productivity falls compared to the benefits given to the employees, the net profit margin of the concerned enterprise will be reduced. The employer, in that case, will look for new employees from the open market offering them a competitive package of benefits to promote the interest of his enterprise. Similarly, an efficient but underpaid worker will be on the lookout for a better paid job. A competitive environment in the economy alone can ensure better performance or increased productivity of the work-force. Employees or workers would try their best to perform better for job security. Employers in our country are more powerful than the workers. In the RMG sector, workers are compelled to join factories on lower wages. One reason is most of the workers, already working, work for less than eight hours a day. One of the reasons, again, is that the RMG factories still face trouble in getting orders from overseas buyers. Declining consumer spending in the buyer countries, intermittent labour unrest in our RMG sector, quality of products compliance issues raised by the buyers etc., are among the causes behind the slowdown in RMG sector's performance. Some of the RMG entrepreneurs worry that China would grab the global RMG market. We need to make concerted efforts to get global market preferential treatment from the developed countries for over RMG products.
The obvious question that arises here is, why our RMG exporters as well as the government could not create adequate backward linkages in time? All the past governments as well as RMG entrepreneurs did not give proper and effective attention to addressing this need.
Our garment sector needs to face the challenge of losing market share to the competitor-countries. As the country's RMG sector face such a challenge, the real income has declined for the RMG workers. Hyper inflation has added to their sufferings. The RMG entrepreneurs, the government and the lending institutions -- all will have to do something to face the challenge and save the economy. Workers' representatives are busy in improving the benefits for the employees. Agreeable collective bargaining is the normal way for doing this. Negotiation with the entrepreneurs is the only way to protect the interests of both the sides -- the workers as well as the entrepreneurs. Creating anarchy or resorting to destructive activities cannot give a solution. Coming days would be tougher and more crucial.
(The writer works with ONE Bank, Khatunganj Branch, Chittagong)