Editorial
Garment sector's Achilles heel
Time business as usual approach were shunned
AFTER each episode of violence and vandalism wreaked by garment workers in the Ashulia factory belt, one would have expected a bit of wizening to avert another round of indulgence in self-destruction. But this was not to be -- after a spell of uneasy lull induced through adhocism, back again on a suicidal track!
One can discern two elements of irony in the whole situation. First, despite the acclaimed skill of quick learning workers, most of them women, a talented pool of entrepreneurs and the overall profitability of their concerns, they have failed to forge healthy equations between them, primarily based on meeting the basic needs of the employees.
The second paradox is in the predictability of the pattern of action and reaction and yet the owners being invariably caught unprepared, to a point of deliberate callousness, in heading off an impending crisis with any timely intervention. To us, the internal vulnerabilities run so deep in the organisations that one needn't be surprised if it courted an act of sabotage.
The trouble has usually ensued from underpayment or delayed payment of dues. In the case of Textown Group, the latest under the spotlight for wrong reasons, the BGMEA claims that traffic jam caused a delayed arrival of money. Now, the point is, given the worker sensitivity over payment issues and the known reality of worsening traffic congestion, why was the money transfer not arranged in good time?
With the police and the workers clashing with and injuring each other, as many as 50 factories shuttered down by the owners in anticipation of trouble, and workers escalating their demands, valuable working hours were lost adversely, one hopes not, affecting our goodwill among overseas buyers. To say nothing of public inconvenience and loss caused by the bashing of vehicles, all the stakeholders were losers whereas it should have been win-win for them. Perhaps, it is time the concept of industrial police the governments have often toyed with were translated into reality.
The adversarial relationship between the owners and the workers must be brought to an end by setting up truly representative, professional and responsible CBAs in the garments sector. No communication gap should be allowed to develop between the employer and the employees as the origins of trouble have been usually found in miscommunication and exaggerated account of an incident which are so avoidable.
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