Garment workers in Bangladesh endure harsh
conditions and the world’s lowest minimum wage
By Michael Safi
Fewer workers than usual have been gathering
for cup of chai near the guarded, grey towers of Ashulia, a hub for garment
factories on the outskirts of Dhaka. “Everyone seems scared of being harassed
by the police,” says one tea seller, frowning from his stall.
Ashulia’s garment factories, which produce
clothing for ranges on sale across the developed world, are alive with activity
but the tension brimming in the air – and the lines of armed guards posted
outside some gates – echo the anger that has swept the area.
Last month, tens of thousands of workers clocked
in then immediately returned to the streets, joining the largest protests since
those that followed the collapse in 2013 of the Rana Plaza clothing factory,
causing more than 1,100 deaths.
The unrest over rates of pay forced around 50
factories to shut for more than a week and led to dozens of arrests and the
“temporary dismissal” of at least 1,500 workers. Last week, those workers still
willing to huddle in Ashulia’s streets during their lunch breaks were swapping
stories about the people dismissed.
“No factories will give them work now,” one
man in his late 20s says, asking that his name be withheld. “They are in big
trouble. One of my friends told me he doesn’t even stay at his own house,
afraid the police will harass him.”
Another worries that he will not be paid for
the weeks in December when the factories were shuttered. “We get a very small
amount of money,” he says. “If we do not get salary for two weeks, this will be
a huge problem.”
“The officials of our factories get pay rises
every year,” one of the men speaks up. “But they have all the problems when
workers ask for a pay rise.”
The pay rise they wanted was a tripling of
the minimum salary of 5,300 taka (£54) a month, currently the lowest minimum
wage in the world, to 16,000 taka – still well short of what thinktanks such as
the JustJobs Network, which has offices in Washington and New Delhi, consider a
living wage.
Industrial unrest close to Christmas was
particularly provocative, raising fears among factory owners that lucrative
contracts with western brands such Gap, Zara and H&M could go unfilled.
Police used rubber bullets to disperse the crowds of protestors and arrested at
least 30 people, charging many under controversial wartime laws designed to
quash threats to state security, union leaders claim.
Ashulia’s factories finally roared back to
life on Boxing Day, but workers returned to find lists of names posted at the
gates. “Around 59 garment factories had temporarily dismissed their workers and
asked them for explanations why their contracts should not be terminated,” says
Babul Akhter, head of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers’
Federation.
Police said about 1,500 workers had been
sacked or suspended but Akhter says the actual number “may be as much as
3,000”. Among those to see their names posted that morning was Rajan Chandra
Gain, 19, a cutting assistant at Ashulia’s Fashion Forum Ltd factory. He
insists he played no part in the demonstrations.
Advertisement
“We had heard of the protests going on
outside,” he says. “But I was working at my station. Soon everyone was asked to
leave. I followed. The factory was shut down for the day. [When I returned] I
found my photo on the notice saying I have been temporarily dismissed along
with a few others.”
The days since have been anxious ones for
Gain. “I am one of six siblings from my 13-member family who are working,” he
says. “The entire family depends on our incomes. If I do not get my job back,
my family will be in a tough financial situation.”
But it isn’t just losing money that the
teenager fears. Rumours abound that a blacklist of troublemakers is doing the
rounds of factories in the area. “I have heard from other workers that the list
has also been provided to the law enforcement authorities,” Gain says. “I am
scared that I may be arrested. Even if I am not, [if] I do not get my job back
at this factory, I may not find another job in any other ready-made garment
factory because of what has happened here.”
Another worker who discovered his name on the
notices is Humayun Kabir, 30, a sewing machine operator who had worked at the
Setara Group factory for nearly six years – until he was provisionally fired.
“I still do not know what my crime was and why I was dismissed,” he says.
His wife works at a garment factory nearby,
and together the couple support four children and Kabir’s mother on 14,000 taka
a month. This month they’ll need to get by on half that much. “We have not been
able to pay our house rent of 3,500 taka,” he says.
It could be worse: Kabir is still free,
unlike another garment worker, Jahangir, who was arrested during the protests
and is being held in Dhaka prison. His wife, Jharna Begum, spoke to the
Observer by phone from the jail, where she was visiting him. “We are going
through a very tough time,” she said. “I am particularly concerned about my two
children. I don’t know what’s in store for us.”
The last time minimum wages were increased
was 2013, the same year the eight-storey Rana Plaza factory in the Savar area
collapsed, killing 1,134 people. The disaster brought Bangladesh’s entire
garment industry under intense scrutiny but did not slow its strong growth,
from $21.5bn that year to $28bn in 2015-16.
Wages also rose in 2006 and 2010, each time
preceded by significant protests. Hasnain Malik, head of equity research at
London-based investment bank Exotix Partners, suggests December’s unrest could
be the first shots in new wage negotiations.
In the past, too, unions have initially
demanded a tripling in wages, eventually settling for an 80% hike. Even with an
increase of he same amount this time, Malik notes, “you’d still be seeing
Bangladesh as a location on the lower end of global wages in this industry”.
But others see the protests as signs of
deeper trouble. “This issue is much bigger than wages,” says Sabina Dewan, the
president of the JustJobs Network.
In virtually a single generation, the apparel
sector has lifted millions of Bangladeshis out of subsistence lifestyles, but
failed to take them any higher, she says. “Many countries have started with a
low value-added apparel manufacturing, and then moved up the value chain. But
you have to use apparel as a springboard. The growth it generates needs to be
distributed as better wages, safety nets, and more benefits for the people,”
she says.
“Otherwise workers are being used as a mode
of production, but none of the benefits are accruing to them … and at the end
of the day, people are going to speak up, people are going to revolt,” she
adds.
At Ashulia, people are back at their
workstations, if only for now. Bangladesh’s largest lobby of factory owners
insists it will not enter into new wage negotiations until 2018.
They have the backing of the country’s labour
minister, Mujibul Haque. “There is no scope to increase the wages of ready-made
garment workers at this moment,” he says.