Workers Correspondent: At the start of the outgoing yr, the scenario took a flip for the more serious within the midst of entrepreneurs’ worries in regards to the export development of the ready-made garment sector. Labor unrest started across the garment employees’ new wage construction, which at one level spiraled uncontrolled. 4 employees died. This incident has affected this sector greater than 85 p.c of the export revenue. In addition to, there have been numerous sorts of apprehensions. Amongst them, after the USA, the European Council has warned about labor legal guidelines, working setting and human rights. Entrepreneurs are nervous. They stated that there was an enormous change in the previous few years. However full aid shouldn’t be coming. At current, these points are the principle challenges of the clothes sector for the brand new yr.
Specialists say the attire sector should face challenges within the new yr on labor-related and wage points.
There are problems with grades. Many labor leaders are nonetheless in jail. For this, concern is being expressed from overseas. If the federal government can take optimistic steps on the labor concern, the scenario will enhance.
In the meantime, Overseas Secretary Masood Bin Momen stated that the brand new coverage of imposing commerce sanctions in violation of labor rights could create a detrimental scenario in Bangladesh’s garment exports. However he thinks that no such scenario has been created in Bangladesh. He stated this on the Bangladesh Institute of Worldwide and Strategic Research (BIISS) auditorium in Eskaton of the capital throughout a dialogue on World Challenges, RMG and Respectable Work.
It’s recognized that for the reason that starting of the outgoing yr, the entrepreneurs of the ready-made garment sector had been nervous as a result of comparatively low export revenue. Along with this, the federal government elevated the value of fuel and electrical energy once more within the midst of disaster. This will increase the price of doing enterprise for merchants. On the finish of the yr, the garment employees waged a motion. The scenario takes a unique type. The employees of varied factories in Gazipur, Ashulia, Savar and the capital’s Mirpur, that are dominated by the garment trade, first abstained from work and at one level received concerned in assaults and vandalism. Regulation and order forces had been additionally crushed. 3 employees misplaced their lives in police firing. One other employee died of suffocation after being trapped by the fumes of the hearth within the manufacturing facility. 43 instances had been registered towards the employees through the two-week agitation. 20 thousand employees had been accused. 115 of them had been arrested.
The motion began across the proposal of the representatives of the house owners within the Minimal Wage Board. Within the final October twenty second assembly of the wage board constituted by the federal government, the consultant of the labor facet proposed a wage of Tk 20,393. The consultant of the proprietor proposed to make half of it Tk 10,400. After that, the motion began in numerous factories from the following day on October 23, demanding a minimal wage of Tk 23,000.
4 garment employees named Russell Howladar, Imran, Jalal Uddin and Anjuara Khatun died within the three-week agitation of employees over wages. If the scenario goes uncontrolled, the proprietor decides to make a brand new supply. On seventh November, the proprietor proposed a rise of Tk 2,100 to Tk 12,500 as in comparison with the earlier proposal. That was finalized later. The brand new wage construction got here into impact from 1st December.
Within the face of varied pressures, the labor leaders had been compelled to cease the agitation for wages inside a brief time frame. Nonetheless, the whole lot didn’t cease. 8 members of the US Congress imagine that the minimal wage set for garment employees shouldn’t be sufficient. They take into account it not solely unhappy but additionally shameful that the employees’ demand of minimal wage of Tk 23,000 per 30 days shouldn’t be met.
In such a scenario, the 8 members of the US Congress wrote to the American Apparels and Footwear Affiliation (AAFA) to pressurize the federal government and the producers of the ready-made clothes sector to simply accept the demand for a minimal wage of Tk 23 thousand or $208. On December 15, these members of the US Congress despatched a letter to AAFA President and CEO Steven Lammer.
In the meantime, after the wage motion stopped, the entrepreneurs of the garment trade had been nervous once more due to the introduced labor coverage of the USA. The USA is the biggest export marketplace for Bangladesh’s manufactured clothes.
On this scenario, on November 16, the USA introduced a presidential memorandum on the safety of employees’ rights worldwide. It’s stated that the USA will maintain accountable the leaders of labor unions all over the world, employees in favor of labor rights, those that present threats and intimidation towards labor organizations. Varied restrictions together with commerce, visa restrictions will likely be utilized towards these accountable for this. Nonetheless, worldwide issues over wages haven’t but subsided.
In the meantime, the European Council has raised new issues within the letter. So, questions have been raised in regards to the nation’s labor requirements, human rights and dealing setting. Specialists really feel that when Bangladesh is getting ready for the GSP plus profit, such precautions must be taken severely.
The USA has applied a visa coverage to make sure free and truthful elections in Bangladesh. For that purpose, there isn’t a alternative to take the labor coverage of the USA simply, regardless that the labor leaders expressed their issues on this manner, the house owners had been silent. Nonetheless, the federal government postponed an initiative to amend the labor legislation on the final minute.
Though there may be potential, the nation’s prime export income garment sector goes to begin the brand new yr with a number of challenges. In response to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), attire exports grew by 3.5 per cent within the first 5 months of the present monetary yr 2023-24, however declined once more within the final two months.
In the meantime, attire exports to Germany, the EU’s essential market, have steadily declined over the previous few months. From January to September 2023, exports to Germany fell by 12.58 p.c in comparison with the identical interval in 2022.
Export earnings to the US, one of many nation’s essential markets for ready-made clothes, fell final yr. In response to the newest info offered by the Worldwide Commerce Fee below the US Division of Commerce, Bangladesh’s garment exports to the USA dropped by 24.75 p.c to $6.35 billion within the first 10 months from January to October this yr. Nonetheless, throughout the identical interval of the earlier yr, US-made attire exports earned $8.44 billion. Nonetheless, in 2023, exports to non-traditional markets are rising greater than the USA and the European Union. Because of this, export earnings have been spared from a pointy decline.
BGMEA president Farooq Hasan stated that Bangladeshi garment merchants export merchandise to the USA with none duty-free services. Then there may be concern in regards to the nation’s garment export earnings.
The Secretary of State stated, the newly introduced US labor coverage and the emphasis on collaborative efforts between the federal government, entrepreneurs and employees to face future challenges within the garment sector. Because of this coverage of theirs, the import of uncooked supplies and export of clothes could create a detrimental scenario. Any restrictive measures towards the trade will result in manufacturing facility closures and lack of jobs for ladies employees.
Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Ehsan-e-Elahi stated, the prerequisite for guaranteeing labor rights is the development of the authorized framework. Bangladesh has ratified a number of worldwide labor conventions. The nation has amended its labor legal guidelines every so often following the necessities of the Worldwide Labor Group (ILO). There’s hazard if employees usually are not cautious about their rights.