Apparel disputes arise mainly from wages: study

Most of the incidents of unrest in the garment sector in 2014 were related to outstanding wages and overtime allowances, according to a study released yesterday.

A total of 52.9 percent of all disputes in the apparel sector were caused by the issue, while 18.8 percent of unrest was for salary and benefit hikes.

Disputes over employment contracts led to unrest in 12.1 percent cases, according to the study report prepared by Jakir Hossain, a professor of Rajshahi University.

Of 246 incidents of disputes in the industrial sector last year, 165 took place in the garment sector.

Hossain presented the findings of the study at a seminar on 'state of labour tripartism in Bangladesh's garment sector and the scope of harmonious industrial and labour relations' at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka.

Of 230 industrial disputes in 2013, 199 took place in the garment sector.

Most of the disputes could have been resolved had there been an effective tripartite system, involving equal representation of factory management, trade union leaders and government representatives, Hossain said.

However, in case of Bangladesh, tripartite mechanisms cannot work effectively mainly due to a weakness of the trade union leaders, against strong and organised owners and government representatives.

“In the case of workers' representatives, they cannot be organised as they are divided.”

The study was conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) and German-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung on the basis of newspaper reports published in 2014.

Roy Ramesh Chandra, a BILS member, said the weakest point of the garment sector in Bangladesh is that the sector does not belong to any particular ministry. As a result, when a dispute arises, so many ministries and agencies try to resolve those and finally, very little is done effectively, he added.

Chandra said China's current share in the global garment business is 37 percent while Bangladesh's share is only 5 percent.

“If we can capture 10 percent of China's total garment business, our exports will cross $50 billion soon.”

Wajedul Islam Khan, secretary to the executive committee of BILS, said the tripartite committees in the garment sector cannot work effectively mainly because of a lack of monitoring by the government.

Shahidullah Azim, the immediate past vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the arbitration cell of the association can be a good example of a tripartite committee.

o far, 8,658 out of 9,550 disputes have been resolved through the BGMEA's arbitration cell; in the resolved cases, the owners have paid Tk 30.43 crore to the workers, he added.

Nazma Akter, president of Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation, a rights group, called for social dialogues among workers, owners, trade union leaders and government officials so that the disputes can be resolved in a peaceful way.