The Proposed Wage Structure 2010 for the
Garments
 |
| The Proposed Wage Structure 2010 for the Garments Workers of Bangladesh |
Workers of Bangladesh
Class
|
Wage – Year 2006
In Taka
|
Wage – Year 2010
In Taka
|
Rate of
Increase
%
|
Grade 1
|
5,140
|
9,300
|
80.93
|
Grade 2
|
3,840
|
7,200
|
87.50
|
Grade 3
|
2,449
|
4,120
|
68.23
|
Grade 4
|
2,250
|
3,763
|
67.24
|
Grade 5
|
2,046
|
3,455
|
68.87
|
Grade 6
|
1,851
|
3,210
|
73.42
|
Grade 7
|
1,662
|
3,000
|
80.45
|
Apprentice
|
1,200
|
2,500
|
108.33
|
*The apprenticeship period is
3 months, but if the apprentice cannot attain satisfactory efficiency by that
time, the factory owners will be able to extend the period by another 3 months.
(For details of workers by designations, see Appendix I).
Source:
Rahman, 1 August 2010. P. 13.
The Bangladesh
Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that they were
not sure if all industrial units of the sector would be able to pay as per the
new wage structure from 01 November 2010, but that they would be inspired to
pay the workers at the new rate of payment. The Bangladesh Knitwear
Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) said that the production of
factories had fallen by 40% for various reasons and called upon the government to
solve the problems of gas and electricity before the implementation of this pay
structure (Rahman, 1 August 2010. P. 13).
Appealing to the garments owners to be more
cordial to the problems of the workers, the government has also assured that
the garments workers will be provided with subsidized rationing facilities for
rice and wheat on behalf of the government (Ittefaq,
1 August 2010, P.11).
IV. Workers’ Reaction
to the New Wage Structure 2010
Immediate
reaction of the workers to the new wage structure was widespread violence. They
came down in tens of thousands on the streets from garments factories almost
all over the country. They set fire on garments factories, broke instruments of
factories and cars of factory owners, including those of innocent people, and
shopping malls on the streets. Thus they created a panic and havoc all around
the country in and around the garments factories, which turned difficult and
almost impossible for the law enforcing agencies to control. This widespread
havoc, which was widely and exclusively covered by the national and international
print and electronic media continued for three to four consecutive days in the
country causing, according to the BGMEA, Taka 8.75 billion losses to the
garments industry alone.
The causes of
violence was that the Wage Board did not pay heed to garments workers’ long
continued demand of Taka 5 thousand as minimum wage, but instead set Taka 3
thousand as minimum wage. The agitating leaders of the workers’ organizations
rejected the three party joint decisions of the Government, BGMEA and Workers’
representatives saying that they declared to accept the wage structure without
any discussion with the actual leaders of the workers. They say that the wage
structure has been imposed upon the workers only through sittings with the
government assisted leaders of the workers’ organizations. Their appeal was by
discussing the issue with the actual leaders of the workers, and implement it
from 28 April 2010 (Ittefaq, 3 August
2010, P.2).
Some experts
claim that since there are no trade union facilities in the garments industries
the spontaneous resentment of the workers went beyond control. They suggest
that just as the owners have the right of association and to elect their own
representatives, the workers also should have their right of association and trade
union facilities, so that they can elect their own representatives to bargain
with the owners. If this had been done earlier, the incidents that occurred
after the declaration of the wage structure 2010, could be avoided (Selim, 12
August 2010, P.9).
According to
those that argue against the declared wage structure for Bangladeshi garments
workers, the minimum wage of an unskilled worker necessary to pay for food,
clothing, shelter, health care, etcetera
at the present level of commodity prices should actually be more than Taka
5,000. Since the garments workers are semi-skilled, their reasonable wage should
be Taka 6/7 thousand, which is above the wage that the considerate garments workers
demanded. Moreover, these workers get much lower wage than their counterparts
in other countries like China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan etcetera whose apparels mainly compete with those of Bangladesh in
the world market (Table II).
Table II.
Comparative minimum wages of garments workers in some competing countries
Country
|
Wage per Month
$
|
Wage per Hour
$
|
Turkey
|
N.A
|
2.44
|
Mexico
|
N.A
|
2.17
|
300
|
1.44
|
|
106
|
0.51
|
|
92
|
0.44
|
|
116
|
0.56
|
|
92
|
0.44
|
|
25
|
0.22
|
Source:
Selim, 22 July 2010, P. 9. Turkey and Mexico figures are from Uddin, 21 July
2010, P.11. The principal source of data produced by these authors is a World
Bank (WB) study.
From the
comparative picture of minimum wages depicted in Table II, it can be argued
that even if the Bangladeshi apparels workers’ demand for Taka 5 thousand as
minimum wage is accepted, they will receive less than $ 72 per month or $ 0.34
per hour, which still remains the lowest among the comparator countries. So the
argument which the garments owners always make that, if the wages of the
workers are increased this industry will lose its external competitiveness is
not tenable. One may raise the question of productivity of the Bangladeshi
garments workers, but even under that consideration the Bangladeshi garments
workers are deprived. According to a WB account a Bangladeshi worker by
producing 2536 numbers of T-shirts per year gets $290, whereas an Indian worker
gets $668 by producing only 56 more T-shirts per year. According to a Centre
for Policy Dialogue (CPD) account, export earnings of the garments industries
in 2001-02 was $4.58 billion of which a little more than $0.22 billion was paid
to the workers, which is only 5% of the total earnings, although by the sweat
of the workers value added was 31% of the total value (Selim, 22 July 2010, P.
9).
Garments industry
has turned into a main pillar of the Bangladesh economy, accounting for
three-fourth of the country’s total export earnings. The garments owners have been
able to spread an idea that this is their main or paramount credit. But the actual truth is that there is no
backward linkage in the Bangladesh garments sector to speak about; as a result the
lion-share of the value added here is the contribution of the labour power, if
not the whole. The main foundation and source of the rapid expansion of the Bangladesh
garments industry is the cheap labour power. In Bangladesh the intensity of capital
per worker is very low (1/3 in comparison to China ). The owners of the garments
industry could own so large amounts of wealth mainly in exchange of the self-sacrifice
of the workers who do bone-breaking work day and night at unusually low wages.
So if any one is to be recognized as Commercially Important Person (CIP) and
given some special advantages, it is the 3 to 4 million garments workers of
Bangladesh who are the real Hero, not the tax-avoiding millionaire owners
(Selim, 12 August 2010, P.9). The argument that the garments workers should get
their just wage is thus incontrovertible.
It is ironic
that when garments workers are being deprived of their rightful wages, the pomp
and granger and standard of living of the garments owners are gradually increasing.
Many of them purchasing first class air tickets and booking five star hotels abroad
go on luxurious world tour with their family members once or twice every year. They
hesitate little while spending money in such a lavish manner, but if the
question of giving the workers just wages and minimum of facilities arise they
always wail ‘if this is done the industry will be ruined. Business is very bad these
days’ (Selim, 22 July 2010, P. 9). Such practice of the garments owners does
not even conform to the principles of wage determination in Islam as shown
above in Section II, 03. It is simply the capitalistic exploitative
indifference (parallel to coercive methods that is followed in socialism) which
they show to the just interests of the workers who turn into sweat their blood
every day in garments factories. This is simply unjust. Allāh does not accept
it. Al Qur’ân reveals, “Allāh hath favoured some of you above others in
provision. Now those who are more favoured will by no means hand over their
provision to those (slaves) whom their right hands possess, so they may be
equal with them in respect thereof. Is it then the grace of Allāh that they
deny?”16/71
It is not only
in Bangladesh, the garments workers are discontented all over the world. The
difference is that workers elsewhere do not adopt the policy of breaking and
setting fire to factories as the Bangladeshi workers do. To put forth their
grievances, they may choose the way of agitation but they do not violate the
law. China also faces the events of discontents. The workers there come to the
cities to do bone-breaking work, leaving behind the painful village life, but
for that they demand reasonable remunerations. They are unwilling to work
shutting down eyes-ear-mouth like their predecessors. Before or after work, the
discontented garments workers demand increase in wage by standing on the roads
– such incidents are occurring much in China (Royel, 16 August 2010, P. 20).
The way in which
the garments workers of Bangladesh reacted to the new wage structure is also
un-Islamic. Al Qur’ân reveals, “But
seek the abode of the Hereafter in which Allāh hath given thee and neglect not
thy portion of the world, and be thou kind even as Allāh hath been kind to
thee, and seek not destructive affairs in the earth; verily! Allāh loveth not
those who seek destructive affairs”. 28/77 It is Islamic, as said
above (in Section II, 03), that
the wage will be determined on the basis of free
will and voluntary mutual understanding of the employer and the employee.
V. Owners’ reaction to the new Wage Structure 2010
(i) Problems faced by the owners
The crisis of
the apparels industry are not limited merely to the wages and allowances of the
workers. The production of the factories has come down to a half, export has
decreased, and the price of the apparels is decreasing in the international
market. The owners of the apparels industry say that the supply of gas and
electricity is not continuous, because of which they are compelled to use
generators to keep the production process of the factories continuous. This
results in increasing cost of production. But it is urgent to reduce the cost
of production to keep the price competitive in the international market. The
related entrepreneurs say that if the government fails to supply sufficient gas
and electricity then industrialization in this country will be hampered.
Moreover,
serious and untoward incidents are being occurred on the basis of rumours and
petty demands; it has become a ploy to destroy factories by spreading news of
misbehaviour of the factory owners with the workers, which is tarnishing the
image of Bangladesh as an exporting country in the outside world (Dilal, 11
July 2010, P.13).
But it cannot
also be denied that sometimes there occur abnormal deaths of workers in the
garments factories (Ittefaq. 24 July
2010, P.1 and Ittefaq, 27 July 2010,
P. 1). It is also alleged that the kidney disease is widespread among the
garments workers as they are discouraged to drink water during their duty
period, because if they drink water during their duty time they may have to repeatedly
go to the urinal (Selim, 22 July 2010, P. 9). This is inhuman, whereas Al
Qur’ân reveals that, “I would not make it hard for thee, Allāh willing, thou
will find me of the righteous.”28/27
(ii) Falling trend of the prices of
apparels in the international market
Export Promotion
Bureau and BGMEA sources say that apparels prices in the international market
are gradually falling recently. Table III shows the price per dozen at which
the foreign buyers purchased apparels from Bangladesh in the last 16 years from
1994-95 to 2009-2010 (July to November) (Hasan, 26 July 2010, P. 2).
Table III. Apparels price per dozen at
which the foreign buyers
purchased during 1994 – 95 to 2009 – 2010 (July to November)
Year
|
Price per Dozen in $
|
1994-95
|
35.65
|
1995-96
|
35.38
|
1996-97
|
37.06
|
1997-98
|
38.52
|
1998-99
|
39.63
|
1999-00
|
38.87
|
2000-01
|
39.19
|
2001-02
|
32.64
|
2002-03
|
32.31
|
2003-04
|
31.23
|
2004-05
|
30.22
|
2005-06
|
28.85
|
2006-07
|
27.69
|
2007-08
|
27.50
|
2008-09
|
26.82
|
2009-10
(July-November)
|
26.62
|
Source:
Hasan, The Daily Ittefaq, 58th Year, No.211, 26 July 2010, P. 2.
Table III shows
that apparels prices increased gradually from 1994-95 to 2000-01 with a slight
fall in the year 1995-96 compared to the immediate past year, after which the
prices jumped; then from 2001-02 prices fell continuously till 2009-10. For this
reason, the apparels owners were unwilling to accept Taka 5,000 as minimum wage
for the garments workers, because this will, in their view, adversely affect
the garments sector (Hasan, 26 July 2010, P. 2). The owners proposed Taka 2,513
as minimum wage for the second time, whereas the visiting General Secretary of
the International Textile, Garments and Leather workers Federation said, after
meeting separately with both the owners and the workers at Dhaka that, it will
cause no harm to the industry if Taka 5,000 is given to the workers as minimum
wage (Jugantar, 23 July 2010, P. 2). Afterwards,
as a result of the intervention made by the government, the BGMEA accepted the
new wage structure with Taka 3,000 as minimum wage for the garments workers of
Bangladesh. If it is just, there is no question; but if unjust, in that case
Allāh says, “Woe unto the defrauders, those who when they take the measure from
mankind demand it full, but if they measure unto them or weigh for them, they cause
them loss.”83/1-3
Garments workers
sweat their blood in the process of production of garments in the factories and
it is alleged that for months after months the owners do not come to the
factories; the factories are usually run by the salaried officials who
habitually misbehave with the hard working labourers of the factories (Khayer,
29 July 2010, P. 2) It is Haram (not permissible) to consume the fruits of the
workers by sitting idle without their consent (Alam, 2003, P.200-201); this
negates the usual capitalist concept that “its highest executives spend their
time sitting on public committees, and have to have deputies to do their work”
(Lewis (1954), 1963, P.412) – as this is improper.
(iii) Alleged
attempts to destroy the Garments
Sector: Six causes:
The garments owners
claim that a certain quarter has started hatching conspiracy to destroy the garments
sector of the country. The external miscreants by intruding the garments
establishments in the guise of workers have started misdeeds. They are being
instigated and used by certain interested quarters from outside.
The concerned
parties have identified six causes behind the attempts to destroy the garments sector. These are: (a) the foreign buyers’ recent
inclination to Bangladesh, (b) The instigation of some external powers, (c) the
assistance of local influential quarters and the so called labour leaders, (d) the
intrusion of the jutting outs miscreants in to the garments factories, (e) the
differences of opinions of the political miscreants centering the occupation of
the ‘Jhut’ sector, and (f) the
internal feud among the labour leaders. The actual workers have no affiliation
with these factors. The garments establishments are getting jobs these days
(Badal, 2 August 2010 ,
P. 2)
May be there is
a conspiracy to harm the garments sector of Bangladesh but when the disturbances
in this sector erupts, tens of thousands of workers come down on the streets
which is pictured in the national and international electronic media. It is
illogical to conclude that all of them are miscreants; there may be some who
fan the fire of discontents in the minds of the deprived workers. If the
workers are satisfied with and had there been no serious discontents in the
minds of the workers about what is going on in this sector, it is obvious that
it would have been almost impossible to drag down on the streets tens of
thousands of innocent workers by a single or a series of “mobile calls of the miscreants
from outside” as is alleged by some experts (Dey, 1 August 2010, P.11) and at
the same time the disguised miscreants inside the factories could do little
harm to this sector. Our habit is to expect too much from law and law enforcing
agencies, we forget that they have some natural limits to their capacities;
they can at best suppress the problems for the time being but not permanently
cure the actual problems prevailing in the factories. It is the owners of the
factories who can play the pivotal role in bringing about peace in the
factories by allowing the workers their due share to their produce in the
factories in the form of satisfactory wages and allowances by cutting down the
excess profits they earn. It is not permissible in Islam to earn excessive
profits by coercing the working class or the purchasers of commodities. Islam
prefers to advise the business community to ascertain a middle course in
between the highest and the lowest margin of profits for success in both the worlds,
here and the Hereafter.
The garments
owners will have to understand that the minimum wage of a garments worker is Taka
1,662 (now Taka 3,000). Actually the new basic wage rate is Taka 2,000, while
the minimum basic pay for a government employee is Taka 6,545. Of the remaining
Taka 1,000, Taka 800 is house rent allowance and Taka 200 is medical allowance,
which like other allowances are not usually included in the basic wage/pay in
any other services as has been done in the case of wage of the garments workers;
It is difficult for the workers to sustain their life under the prevailing high
prices of daily necessities with this meagre amount of money. As a result, suppressed
despair and discontent is naturally there in the minds of the workers (Hydar,
15 May 2010, P. 2), which burst out from time to time, as we see, in the
factories causing unrest and disturbances in this sector. To control this is beyond
the capacity of the law enforcing agencies, and the government, too, cannot and
should not always shoulder such selfish interests and responsibilities of the private
factory owners at public costs even though the factory owners pay taxes. They
are to solve their own problems by bringing contentment in the mind of the
workers by allowing them satisfactory wages. Government can at best assist them
in this regard. Al Qur’ân reveals, “Help ye one another unto righteousness and
pious duty. Help not one another unto sin and transgression, but keep your duty
to Allāh”.5/2
(iv) International conspiracy
BGMEA sources
are often heard to official say that some interested quarters are hatching
conspiracies to divert the attention of the buyers from the Bangladeshi apparels
industry. Rival competing countries allegedly create unrest in the industry and
instigate the garments workers to engage in destructive activities such as
breaking and setting fire to garments factories. It has been seen that
factories where wages and allowances are satisfactory, in other words the
compliance factories, are being mainly chosen for attack and creating
disturbances.
Garments
owners and exporters maintain that, in the name of just wages for the workers,
some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are instigating the workers to
create trouble in the factories. They spread discontent among workers under
various pretexts and send the news of such unrest to different international
media. Such news worries the foreign buyers about the uncertainty of supplies
from Bangladesh and makes them choose safe sources of supply elsewhere. Because
of the global economic depression, the demand for apparels and the price thereof
has fallen significantly in the international market. Owners and exporters of
apparels are now in a panic, because of the fear that if in the present adverse
global economic situation worker unrest remains widespread, the garments sector
will not survive.
BGMEA leaders
claim that wage payments of the workers in factories have not been stopped even
in this period of international recession. They say, it is not the actual
workers of the factories but the occupiers of ‘Jhut’ trading, together with other problems, which create unrest in
the garments industries at present. Leaders of the Combined Garment Workers
Federation (CGWF) maintain that the problems can be solved through mutual
understanding and not by shutting down the factories (Dilal, 11 July 2010,
P.13). CGWF leaders admit that there are some pending problems of the ‘actual’
workers in some garments factories. These problems need to be solved by the
factory owners either individually at the factory level or collectively at the
sector level, so that the national and international self seekers cannot
utilize the innocent workers to serve their own heinous purpose.
Some of the
privileged labour leaders of the garments industries frequently or occasionally
visit various foreign countries under the patronage of some interested national
and international quarters. They have amassed huge amount of money and
property. They are also accused of blackmailing both the factory owners and the
workers of this sector and causing disturbances that erupt from time to time in
this successful sector of the Bangladesh economy (Sipu, 5 August 2010, P.1). The
concerned parties should remember what Allāh says, “Keep the covenant. Verily!
Of the covenant it will be asked.”
VI. Profit motive of the Garments Owners and
the Imperialistic Capitalists buyers
For the creation
of additional employment for the surplus labour, capital investment in
different fields of economic activities is a must, and, in capitalism, “if our
interest is in an expanding capitalist sector, the assumption of profit
maximization is probably a fair approximation to the truth” (Lewis (1954),
1963, P.407). In capitalism, workers are involved in the process of production,
but they are not considered as sharers of the profit. It is permissible to earn
a reasonable margin of profit in Islam by producing and trading Halal (permissible)
goods and the profit is not appropriated by the producers or traders alone but
injunctions have been given that “give the workers a share from the earnings
(profits) of their labour; because the workers of Allāh cannot be deprived” (Hadith:
Quoted in Dainandin Zibane Islam, 2000, P.500). But we see an entirely
different picture in the Bangladesh garments sector at large.
01. The owners of the garments
factories spread an idea that if the wage of the workers is increased the
factories will incur loss and the result will be the closure of the factories id est. an increase in wages will be
ruinous to this ‘golden egg laying’ sector. But this is not at all true. An International
Labour Organization (ILO) survey reveals that, the minimum wage of workers of Bangladesh in
the garments sector is the lowest compared to other competing countries in the
world. Let us have a look at Table IV.
Table IV. Comparative picture of Minimum
Wages and Profit margin
in the Garments Sector of different competing Countries
Countries
|
Minimum wage in $
per Month
|
Profit margin
%
|
113
|
11.8
|
|
118
|
N.A
|
|
120
|
6.5
|
|
204
|
3.2
|
|
39
|
43.1
|
Source:
Selim, 13 August 2010, P. 19. Bangladeshi minimum wage is corrected in the
table. Selim quotes $69, equivalent to Taka 4,830, which is above the new
minimum wage that is yet to come in to effect.
The WB estimates
of minimum wages given in Table II are at variance with the ILO estimates presented
in Table IV. ILO estimates seem to be slightly inflated for countries like
India, Pakistan, widely inflated for countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh, and
deflated by a wide margin for China, in comparison to WB estimates.
However, even if
the wage rate is increased by reducing the rate of profit of the Bangladeshi
apparels owners by as much as 50 percent, the profit margin of the Bangladeshi
owners will remain higher than that of other competing countries. A Bangladesh
Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) study shows that in Taka 100 worth of
Bangladeshi apparels the amount of value added by labour is Taka 31. Of this
Taka 31, the worker receives only Taka 7 and the owner takes away Taka 24. Even
if the worker is given Taka 15, then also the owner will be able to earn a
profit of Taka 16; and if the former account is taken into consideration, even
then the profit margin will remain 22% which is still more than that of India,
China, and Vietnam. It is common knowledge that if the wage rate is increased,
the efficiency of the workers and the productivity of the industry will also
increase. Allāh says, “For the best (worker) that thou canst hire is strong,
the trustworthy”.28/26 The necessary precondition for this is to pay
the worker sufficient wage so that the worker can keep himself/herself mentally
and physically healthy for satiety and higher productivity.
The revised wage
structure was declared on 29 July 2010. All concerned naturally assumed that it
would come into effect from August 2010. But it was later decided that the new
wage structure would come into effect from November 2010. This means that the
workers would receive enhanced wage from December 2010, by which time two Eid festivals would be over. Therefore,
the purpose of the section of garments owners is very clear. They are desperate
to take surreptitiously immense profit over night by keeping the cheap wage
situation (Selim, 13 August 2010, P. 19).
02. In
international
market of garments industry in such a manner that the selling countries are
compelled to engage among themselves in cut-throat competition to sell their
apparels at the cheapest possible price. The apparels producing countries,
including Bangladesh, without trying collectively to encounter the exploitations
and deprivations by the imperialistic economic powers, which control the
equipment of the garments industry and the apparels market, try desperately and
sell apparels at low prices to please them. To survive the cut-throat
competition to sell the apparels to the foreign buyers along with their purpose
to take surreptitiously immense profit the garments industry owners have to try
to lower the cost of production as low as possible. The price of raw materials and
equipments of the industry is beyond their control; so they usually have almost
nothing to do in that regard. Moreover, the Bangladeshi garments owners always
try to remain in the good book of whichever government comes to power for
availing of the benefits such as tax exemptions, loan facilities, bailing out
funds etcetera because of which they
are not serious about pressurizing the governments for satisfactory supply of
gas and electricity. Therefore, in order to make out a place in the world
market, and earn a big amount of profit, the garments owners choose the only
way, and that is to give the workers a wage rate as low as possible (Selim, 12
August 2010, P.9). Time has come for the Bangladeshi garments owners to
remember that, “It is illegal to sustain loss (yourself) and cause loss to
(other)” (Hadith).
03. In a capitalistic system there
always exists a natural conflict between the capitalists and the workers on the
question of wages. The lesser the wage, the more is the possibility of
increasing the rate of profits by the owners. The owner wants to use the labour
power of the worker at the least possible wage. On the other hand the worker
wants to increase his wage as far as possible. He wants to get the wage that will
enable him lead a minimum possible living standard. It is the question of his
existence as a human being. From the owners’ side, the urge to keep down the
wage of the worker is an inherent characteristic of capitalism; in the garments
industry this is relatively higher. In this tug-war of wage fixation between
the owners and the workers, the owners always win. This is what has happened
recently in the garments sector of Bangladesh also.
In Bangladesh,
if because of illness the workers fail to go to work any day, no owner of the
factory pays them wage. Moreover, if they demand their just due, it is alleged
that the owners torture them with the help of hired miscreants (Khan, 24 July
2010, P. 2). Their daily meal is a piece of simple bread in the morning, rice
mixed with salt and pungent at noon and rice with vegetable soup at night; as a
result many a worker becomes prey of untimely death (Hasan, 26 July 2010, P. 1). This is contrary
to the directives given to the employers in the Hadith as mentioned above,
“They (the employees) are your brothers. Allāh has entrusted you with their
responsibilities. So those on whom such responsibilities have been entrusted
are liable to give them such food as they eat, make arrangement for them to
wear such cloths as they wear, and shall never compel them to do such works
which are painful and beyond their capacity to do, and if they are to do such
works the employees will have to be given necessary assistance to do that piece
of work” (Hadith: Bukhari Sharif – Kitabul Imaan).
04. A few months back, after visiting
an apparels industry in Ashulia, the Chairman of an apex US apparels buying
organization ‘Jaycee Penny’ expressed deep concern at the recent unstable
conditions at the garments factories of Bangladesh and said, “it is impossible
for the workers to sustain life at the present wage rate, but it is not
possible to increase apparels prices in the US since recession is still
continuing there” (Khan, 24 July 2010, P.1). This is just like shedding
crocodile tears as the miser westerners usually do by seeing the wretched
conditions of the people of the developing countries which are their own
creation around the world by exploiting them for decades after decades in the
name of development id est., creating
“a world after its own image”, after centuries of colonial lootings, oppression
and suppression by the sneering British with the help of their local henchmen.
The Bangladeshi rising capitalists are following the legacy of the colonial
past in the guise of creating employment opportunities for the unemployed males
and females of their own origin in the apparels industry, like in all other
industries of the country. They follow the western capitalists in the modern
sectors (as well as agriculture). Allāh says, “Follow not the footstep of the
devil. Verily! he is an open enemy for you.”2/168
05.
A section of the garments owners are loading their pockets with tens of
millions of Taka while being reluctant to pay the workers their monthly wage
above Taka 2,500. Many garments owners are making millions of Taka by black
marketing the cloths coming through shipment, but they are hesitant to pay even
Taka 2,500 per month to the workers. They are not even regular in their monthly
payments to the workers whatever low wage they commit them to pay. For not
being paid for 2/3 months, incidents of workers’ discontents and conflicts
spread afterwards in those garments factories. On the other hand, the owners of
these factories have taken tens of millions of Taka bank loans in the name of
these garments factories, and are being forgiven for not paying off such debts.
BGMEA has built a
luxurious building the purpose of which was to create experienced manpower in
the garments sector and to provide the workers with health care facilities. But
training facilities are there only in name, while BGMEA is receiving tens of
millions of Taka as commissions from shipment per year (Khayer, 29 July 2010,
P. 2). The BGMEA building, the concrete peak of vulgar pomp and wealth, is covering
the sky of the capital city when garments workers are passing their days in everywhere
in Bangladesh intolerable poverty. Allāh says, “O ye who believe! Squander not
your wealth among yourselves in vanity, except it is a trade by mutual consent,
and kill not one another
Post A Comment:
0 comments: