Informal job contracts for garment workers

Garment workers, though they contribute immensely by their hard work to economies of South and Southeast Asia, are still deprived and the patterns of deprivation have many similarities. What Asian Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), an Asian labour-led global alliance across garment-producing countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, found from its study in this connection is striking. Going by its (AFWA's) study findings, in majority of the cases (92 per cent), the contracts under which readymade garment (RMG) labourers work in Bangladesh, for instance, are informal.That means there are no written contracts between the garment factory owners and their workers. This paves the ways for all the exploitative conditions the garment workers are subjected to at their workplaces. These include low wage, risk of getting fired at the drop of a hat, lack of essential services like healthcare, paid leave and so on. Needless to say, the female garment workers, who are in overwhelming numbers in the RMG sector, are the worst sufferers as they are exposed to both denials of their basic labour rights and benefits and a greater risk of gender-based violence and harassment. No wonder, among the victims of last year's labour unrest over minimum wage for RMG workers was a female garment worker.
The study came up with similar results about the informal nature of job contract in India (in 65 per cent cases), Pakistan (90 per cent cases), Cambodia and Indonesia. However, questioning AFWA's study methodology, RMG industry leaders in Bangladesh have reportedly dismissed its findings. Denial of the outcome of a dispassionate research is also not helpful when the issue is to improve a situation. Notably, the AFWA study in question has reportedly been a collaborative one with the participation of 23 trade unions and labour bodies from six South and Southeast Asian countries including Bangladesh and done between 2020 and 2024. So, the study has its merits to deserve due attention.
When it comes to sharing the responsibility of the informal nature of job contract and other negative issues affecting RMG workers, the responsibility does not also go entirely to the employers of the garment workers. The global fashion brands who are the buyers of the garment products are also in a large measure to blame for the exploitative conditions persisting at the workplaces at the suppliers'end. Obviously, here the RMG factory owners are the suppliers. In truth, the buyers dictate the prices of the products often forcing the suppliers to leave the workers high and dry. In this context, the AFWA report at one point says that fast fashion lead firms choose to maintain unstable relationships with supplier firms allowing them (buyers) to bargain for shorter lead times at ever lower prices. So pressured, the suppliers, the factory owners, resort to hiring contract labour, temporary workers, creating a vulnerable workforce susceptible to all kinds of exploitation, the AFWA study report further went. The labour right bodies' clamours for improved working conditions for garment workers notwithstanding, the cycle of their vulnerability perpetuates burdening them with increasing workload to meet buyers' demand.
The situation calls for a collaborative effort from labour unions and industry representative to negotiate an acceptable ratio of formal and informal job contracts for workers and reasonable production targets.