Editorial
Garment sector still in trouble!
Intense brainstorming needed to set it right
TUESDAY'S road blockade at Kanchpur by garment workers demanding pay hike made it evident how unrest in a sector affects public life in general. But why should the local commuters and long-distance travellers have to suffer in the gridlock with the loss of thousands of man-hours because there has been irregularity in the payment of salary and benefits in a garment factory?
Undesirable though the situation may appear, yet it has been happening persistently since long. Being deprived of their dues, the workers take to the street, block the traffic for hours and often turn violent ransacking and damaging vehicles, shops and whatever they find on their way.
Now the question that troubles the already anxiety-ridden public is: why are the garment industry owners and their apex bodies like the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association) and BKMEA (Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters' Association) are allowing the problems relating to the workers demands fester for so long?
The situation is causing harm both to the industry and the economy as well as projecting a negative image of the industry, which is otherwise a success story with enormous potential for taking the economy forward.
All concerned including garment owners and their apex organisations need to be earnest and dispassionate and go to the heart of the problem to find out the root causes of this continuing volatility in the garment sector that is behind the sporadic eruption of violent workers' unrest in this highest foreign currency earning industry. However, to the outside observer, it appears that there is lack of any effective channel of communication between the management and the employees. Which is why neither the workers can convey their grievances to the management properly, nor the latter can respond in a proper manner. As a result, it s not only the workers, who are behaving destructively, the garment industry owners are also not following the rules of the game.
But such an unhealthy state of relationship between the workers and the management should not be allowed to continue for an indefinite period to the detriment of the industry itself. The tested and the standard way for the workers to voice their legitimate grievances and demands is through their registered unions. So, to find a way out of the mess the government and the representatives of the management should contemplate allowing the workers to form their unions where there are none.
Until and unless acceptable standards of payment structures and safe working conditions can be ensured, we do not see an end to interminable turmoil in the sector.
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