Loss to RMG industry

Before his exit from the post of president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Sunday, Khandoker Rafiqul Islam claimed that normalcy has returned to the apparel sector but at a huge cost. According to him, the industry lost $400 million in more than a month-long industrial unrest, which has yet to be confirmed by any independent statistical body. If the figure of loss is anywhere near the given sum, it raises more questions than can be answered. In 2023, the readymade garment (RMG) sector fetched $47.38 billion, a record high, and the apex apparel body did not do enough to settle some of the endemic issues souring the industry's labour relations. The fact that the garment owners in the RMG belt most affected by the unrest ultimately accepted all the 18 demands of their workers is a proof that the latter's demands were reasonable and justified. Then why did they allow the situation to escalate to an ugly disruptive level?

Clearly, the inflexible garment owners have none but only themselves to blame. Significantly, garment factories managed well and have been offering reasonable wages to their workers stayed free from the industry's turmoil. It is the ones which were reluctant to give a fair share of the profit to workers have been responsible for leaving their employees and even themselves a casualty of the industrial disruption. The loss has been double-pronged---financial and labour relations. Their litany of infiltration of outsiders for provoking agitation was more a ploy than a reality. That the BGMEA failed to exercise a sobering influence leading to a solution to the problem is clear from the internal feud that has made one group to level charges against another and the vice versa. Finally, an administrator has been appointed to oversee the next election to the body.

The just departed BGMEA president made an appeal to the government to enforce strict law and order in the interest of the sector's stability. This is intriguing if not ludicrous. If workers are not paid their outstanding dues and cleared off their overtime and other benefits on time, the low-paid workers find it difficult to keep their body and soul together in an extremely hostile and volatile market condition. It is the industrial relations, not the army or the law-enforcement agencies, that determine peace, harmony and increased productivity in any industry. Deprived and exploited labour forces are the last to put in their hundred per cent in their performance.

There is a need for a paradigm shift in the mentality of management and owners, particularly at a time when the rallying call for narrowing social discrimination by students who spearheaded the recent movement is gaining momentum, in favour of a fair share of profit with workers. Many garment factories have been doing so and the others should follow suit. The apparel industry has received incentive packages for long and it is asking for more for the factories adversely affected by the recent labour unrest. Well, the appointment of an administrator and formation of neutral board under him speaks volumes for the discord within the industry. Patronage cannot be doled out without accountability. The need is to subject ailing factories' financial audits to stringent inspection before granting loan or stimulus packages.