Jordan a potential hub for BD apparel workers

Jordan's apparel units, which rely heavily on foreign workers, are witnessing a rise in demand for manpower as they begin to recover from the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.

However, Bangladesh, the largest labour-supplying country for the Jordanian garment sector, cannot fully tap this potential due to a shortage of workers according to employers' requirements, officials said.

The country received demand for less workers last fiscal following the war. However, the situation has improved only recently as they are being offered by a good number of worker requirements from the employers.

As per statistics of the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), Bangladesh sent 3,000 workers to Jordan in the July-November period of the ongoing fiscal year, 2023-24.

The state recruiter, BOESL still has demand notes for 6,000 more workers this fiscal so far. It sends apparel workers to Jordan.

BOESL assistant general manager Noman Chowdhury said as Jordan was recovering from the Russia-Ukraine war, the demand for workers in the Middle-Eastern country was increasing gradually.

"Since large companies like Classic Fashion have increased their worker demand to us, it means that we will gradually get orders from other companies as well," he said.

The government recruiter has got a demand for 5,500 workers from Classic Fashion Apparel Industry Ltd in recent time.

Mr Chowdhury said they are receiving a demand for about 500 workers every week from Classic Fashion.

"But, we can supply 200 to 300 workers per week as there is a shortage of required workers."

BOESL hires workers for Jordan through advertisements. But the rejection rate of workers is high in the interview as a significant number of the candidates cannot qualify the test as per the requirements of the employers.

As the demand for workers in Jordan market is now upward, BOESL wrote to the government's Technical Training Centres (TTCs) last week, asking them to send a list of trained workers in garment trade to fulfil the demand.

Bangladesh currently runs 96 TTCs where almost all the centres have courses of garment trade.

Dr Mallick Anwar Hossain, managing director of BOESL, said that they have sent letters to the TTCs to provide lists of workers of last one year so that they can select desired workers.

"We have written to the TTCs for the first time to send a database to meet the current demand and also to provide special opportunities to those undergoing training at TTCs," he said.

In the last two months, BOESL has received 1,500 demands from Jordanian employers. Workers' outflow to the Arab nation from Bangladesh will continue well till March, he mentioned.

"But, we lack quality workers," the BOESL MD said, citing an example that if 500 workers were given the test, 200 to 300 workers would be selected. It becomes difficult to find workers, especially at the high end.

But, the BOESL chief said that compared to the last fiscal year, the number of workers will increase this year, and they are working towards the goal.

However, for a long time, Jordanian apparel companies reduced the number of workers due to a declined production following the lower sales of their items in European market.

Because of the impact of war, the demand for apparel items dropped in the EU, the largest export destination of Jordanian garment products.

In FY 2022-23, Bangladesh could send only 7,014 garment workers to Jordan, more than 55 per cent lower than 15,735 workers who went there in the FY 2021-2022 in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war impact. Nearly 60 per cent of foreign garment workers in Jordan are Bangladeshis. It also recruits workers from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Egypt and Syria for the sector accounting for 80 factories.

Bangladesh sends garment workers to 44 companies in that job market.

Classic Fashion is one of the largest garment industries in Jordan that hires 40 to 50 per cent of its workers from Bangladesh. BOESL started sending apparel workers to Jordan in 2010. It has sent about 100,000 workers to that labour-receiving country, so far.

Data available from the recruitment agency show that it sent 5,549 workers in the FY 2020-2021, 7,463 workers in the FY 2019-20 and 9,494 in the FY 2018-19.

Bangladesh mostly sends operators to Jordan, apart from highly skilled professionals like supervisors, head of operators, head of merchandisers and cooks.

Of them, women are 95 per cent, mostly working as operators.Jordan hired Bangladeshis without migration cost. The basic monthly wage for an operator is Tk 18,000, but total earnings, including overtime, range from Tk 25,000 to Tk 30,000. Professionals can earn approximately Tk 150,000 to Tk 200,000 each month.

Bangladeshis working in Jordan sent home remittances of $61.27 million in the first six months of the current fiscal year (FY), while $127.87 million in the FY 2022-23 and $143.23 million in the FY 2021-22, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.

[email protected]