Child Labour in RMG Sector – an Alternative View

by Engr Kh Mashiur Rahman | Mar 25, 2021 | Compliance

Child Labour

Child Labour – Although child labour is a global and fundamental ‘human rights issue’, its form and nature vary according to regions and countries. International conventions, universal declarations, laws of the land, social awareness — nothing can keep the child labour at bay.

It is poverty which decides a child’s destination, whether it takes the shape of school, a sweatshop or the street. Poet Sukanto has rightly narrated the pangs of hunger in one of his poems in which the full moon appears to him like a round, freshly-baked bread. In the realm of hunger, it is all prose. There is no place for poetry, the poet observes. You can read about The Safety initiatives of Accord Alliance and Can Trade Unions Really Improve RMG Workers’ Lot?

When it comes to the issue of ‘child labour eradication’, it is said that Bangladesh ready-made garments (RMG) sector has achieved a remarkable success; and its rate of progress is far better than any of its competitor countries. In view of the core issue of social compliance, none of the worker-friendly factories in the country is burdened with the NC (non-compliant) grading. Does this success mean we do not have other critical issues in the context of child labour? The bitter fact is the rate of success in the RMG sector has also resulted in the worst form of child labour in many factories, especially in the non-compliant ones. In cases, it assumes the form of even bonded labour. This situation facilitates exploitative and the worst forms of child labour that violates the basic fundamental human rights of a child.

In today’s globalised world, competitiveness is a vital factor in the context of the consumer-market. Everyone wants to lower production cost and maximise profit by increasing sales. Lower cost has always been equated with cheap labour — in our case child labour. Children do not bargain, argue or complain. On the other hand, they spend long hours in work without asking for any compensation. They are constantly in fear of losing job. This situation favours the employers. In many RMG factories in the country, which are out of the social compliance net, or run mostly on sub-contract basis, adolescent workers are being exploited almost systematically.

In the year 1993, the RMG sector had already reached a level worth $1.4 billion with around 750,000 workers at 1500 factories. Around 10 per cent of the total workforce was below the legal minimum working age i.e. below 14. Seventy per cent of the total under-aged workers were girls. Almost 50 per cent of the total business came from the US market. The single-country dependence compelled BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) to initiate, following the Harkin’s bill (first proposed in the US Congress in 1992), a child removal programme from the workplace in conformity with the Bangladesh Factory Act 1965. The Act says that any employment of workers under 14 is illegal.

BGMEA announced a unilateral deadline to make the industry free from child labour by 31 October, 1994. On July 04, 1995, a tripartite agreement was signed among BGMEA, ILO and UNICEF, endorsed by the GoB (Government of Bangladesh). The US embassy in the country played the role of an observer in the job of removal, and rehabilitation of the under-aged workers with basic and technical education and stipend. UNICEF took the lead in the area of education, while ILO engaged in monitoring and verification. The mechanism had been fully functioning by late 1996.
Out of eight fundamental conventions of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Bangladesh ratified six until 2000. The ratified conventions covere ending forced labour, freedom of association, right to organise and collective bargaining, equal remuneration, end to discrimination. In 2001, Bangladesh ratified one more fundamental convention i.e. worst form of child labour, and set the target of eliminating the “worst forms of child labour” by 2015. The country has also ratified the UN convention on the rights of children. The country, however, is yet to ratify a fundamental convention (C 138) on Minimum Age for Employment, which states: “The minimum age. . . should not be less than the age of compulsory schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.”

According to Bangladesh Labour Law 2006, “A child means a person who has not completed his fourteen years of age”. No child is allowed to perform any form of work in any industry. On the other hand, “An adolescent means a person who has completed his fourteen years, but has not completed eighteenth years of age”. An adolescent can work in the industries or establishments under certain terms and conditions.

To eliminate child labour from our RMG sector, the factory management bodies have gone one step ahead. They have eliminated adolescent workers as well. The RMG sector has extended the age-limit of a child to 18 on its own definition. In front of garment factories nowadays, a common notice is seen hanging. It reads: “No child labour is allowed here. Workers under 18 years old are not recruited to the factory.” When an established industry like RMG products does not allow a ‘person’ living below poverty line and having no access to education to work, he or she has to choose an unrecognised industry for employment, where the working condition and the form of work are below-standard with low wages or, sometimes, with no wages at all. Only food is provided in this case. When children lose their jobs in garment factories, they get involved in highly hazardous sources of income just to make a living.

Child labour is a fundamental human rights issue. But in the subcontinent, child labour is culturally and traditionally recognised. In the region, the children of farmers help their parents in the field, and household works. The professionals like blacksmiths, potters, weavers and fishermen get assistance from their children in their respective fields. Thus from the very childhood they help generate family income. On the other hand, they gather technical knowledge of many local professions.

When a child helps his/her family without disrupting school education, it is socially appreciated by tradition; because the employment in this case is informal. When a child has to survive by himself/herself who cares about physical fitness, mental growth or educational rights? If the sharply monitored formal sectors, like the RMG, do not allow children to be employed there, those extremely poor or orphaned will rush to non-formal sectors like workshops, garages etc. There, most of them will get caught in the trap of forced and bonded labour. When scopes for job in the non-formal sector even are not available, children opt for begging in the streets, or get involved in trafficking narcotics or sex trade. If the RMG sector is not a safe place for an adolescent girl, then where would she go?

To make our factories compliant, we are throwing thousands of child workers into a complex life. An adolescent girl, who is denied a space by a RMG factory, will find it difficult to lead a life with secure growth and sound health. To get an ever-elusive job at a RMG factory, adolescent boys/girls take recourse to falsehood, hide their actual age and collect fake national identity cards, and thus prove their ‘adulthood’.

According to the latest National Child Labour Survey (NCLS), the total number of child labour in the country is 7.4 million in the bracket of 5-17 age-group. Out of total child employment, 3.1 million are considered risk-prone. According to an ILO survey, about 93 per cent of child workers toil almost 13 hours a day, where their daily ‘income’ comprises only food two times a day or Tk 30.00 a day to Tk 1500 a month. The workers have to undergo physical torture, work in a stifling condition, unhygienic atmosphere without Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

In our RMG industry, the age of a child has been extended up to “not completed 18 years of age” due to the conditions set for the employment of adolescent workers. To materialise the government’s policy to eradicate the worst form of child labour by 2015, the government, BGMEA and labour leaders should work together. A feasibility study comprising doctors, psychologists and nutritionists can be initiated to measure the physical and mental stress on the adolescents working in RMG factories. If the result of the study is found favourable, then an adolescent can work for eight hours in a decent environment. We can apply this eight-hour work for the persons in the 15 to 18 age-group.

The ILO Convention 138 defines “light work” as work that is not likely to harm the child’s health or development, or prejudice his/her attendance at school. Work in RMG sewing floors is always considered light work. BGMEA/BKMEA can open evening schooling in different industrial zones and can provide training to adolescent boys and girls in different areas.
In a least developed country like Bangladesh where overpopulation, illiteracy and poverty are the major hurdles to achieve sustainable development, it is quite difficult to implement the ‘policy’ mentioned, as it relates to child labour. When the minimum wages of workers in different countries vary according to the countries’ socio-economic realities, one single standard on child labour cannot be justified. When we address the issue of child labour eradication, we need to consider socio-economic conditions of the country concerned.

On the other hand, the forms of labour will not be the same in different industries. Child labour in the ready-made garment industry is different from that in the mines or automobile workshops.
The official acceptance of adolescent RMG workers will surely help us minimise this form of deprivation in the country

Importance of Human Resource Planning in RMG

by Engr Kh Mashiur Rahman | Mar 25, 2021 | Compliance

Importance of Human Resource Planning

Importance of Human Resource Planning – Manufacturing Readymade Garments (RMG) as a labor intensive industry requires a large number of labor force to produce its products and (or) services.
Usually the least developed or developing countries having huge number of
population are the suitable places for labor intensive industries. These industries follow the lowest wage to keep the production cost at a minimum level. Read more about Human Resource Development in RMG factories

Bangladesh and manufacturing ready-made garment (RMG) have been
synonymous to the most of the global brands and buyers of this sector. RMG
sector was considered a start-up industry in many developed economies.
Durations of RMG manufacturing industry in America and UK to Japan to 4-
tiger economies (Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) were muchshorter than in Bangladesh. The shifting of the RMG manufacturing industryover the period, from country to country is because of labor-cost. Over the last four decades Bangladesh is heavily dependent on a single industry and that is RMG due to absence of any other alternative sector (s) to cope with so much of unemployment. Among the major garment manufacturing countries, Bangladesh has the lowest labor wages. Low-wages certainly are the key to be considered an importing destination by the buyers. Being the lowest even, among the other sectors of the country, proper utilization and planning on importance of human resource planning had never been an issue of concern.

The workers were identified with the numerical value in a factory, not as a resource. As a result, productivity, efficiency etc. are also low while man-machine ratio is high compared to its competing countries. Low wage does not help to keep the production cost lower if the workforces are not skilled. On the other hand, in managerial and technical positions many of the factories employ foreign staff to manage the production floors to material sourcing and negotiating with the buyers. Over the period, cost of production including the labor wage in Bangladesh has increased. To be competitive and to capitalize on green factories status and improved ethical compliance and structural safety, there is no alternative to a sustainable importance of human resource planning , which had been heavily ignored since its inception. Importance of Human Resources Planning
There is no universal policy on Human Resources (HR) applicable across the
sectors. Rather depending on the nature of business activities Human Resource Management (HRM) formulates the strategies for the organization. Human Resources Planning (HRP) in corporate level and in operation level is not likely the same. Similarly, HR planning, which is effective in service sector, is not necessarily applicable for agriculture sector or manufacturing sector. Even within the manufacturing sector HR planning depends on the uses of technology and work environment, as a whole. The man-machine ratio is not same in the highly technology dependent manufacturing industry like Textiles and labor intensive manufacturing industry, as Readymade Garments (RMG).
Huge population and lack of alternative employment opportunity, comparative lower wage etc. have been keeping the sector at the top in terms of formal sector employment especially for the females. As human resources are considered the cheapest element in this manufacturing process. They are still abundant as required. As a result, at the operation level management has to employ more workers than required as they are not yet costlier. A thoughtful plan is still missing on importance of human resource planning . Mid-level management is still very weak or inefficient to play the role they are supposed to play. With those realities, the industry is losing its competitiveness and it is concentrated on lowpriced volumetric products.
Generally, management always prefers ad-hoc plan instead of a sustainable
strategy. Bangladesh has the highest number of green factory buildings and
most of the factories are now structurally safe and sound. There are many group of companies who have multiple production complexes with modern machinery and equipment.

Interestingly they are not serious to develop their human resources. Their investment in human resource development is almost nil or insignificant. Instead, the industry is now overburdened with no or only lowly skilled operators and with absence of local talents in mid-level managerial positions. If within a decade few production lines can be converted into a group of companies, then how many decades are needed to develop an effective human management system?
Man, machine and materials are considered the basic elements of industrial
production. Among the core elements, managing human being is the most
important and complicated as well. Like any other organization, the activities of readymade garment factories can be divided into two key functions – Line – those are directly involved with production, the key function of the industry and Staff – those who provide assistance to production.
According to the wage grade of Minimum Wage Board employees of the

Readymade Garments (RMG) industry are divided into two categories, A)
Workers – those are differentiated into seven different grades (1-7) and B)
Employees – who are not directly involved in production but help in production, delivering their services, divided into four different grades (1-4). There are many other important functions which have been skipped in the wage grade. Following table can be drawn to explain the past and present status importance of human resource planning department in readymade garments industry in the country.

Bangladesh has the highest number of green RMG factories in the world.
Highly environmentally friendly factories do not have strategic plan on human resources development. As a result, shortage of skilled workforce creates an unhealthy competition among the entrepreneurs who recruit experienced supervisors and workers from the neighboring factories with higher wages and benefits instead of developing their own workers in their respective factories. It’s like readymade garment sector always look for readymade skilled workers. On the other hand, workers always think out their present value of work. To them BDT 500 is more important than their future benefits. As a result, workers’ 1st Phase (From the beginning till 2000)

Time Keeper

To maintain the payroll, a job of “time-keeper” was strongly placed to record workers in-out time and including over time (OT) work, wage disbursement etc. This activity was controlled by the concerned Production Manager (PM), then the most powerful and unchallenged authority. 3rd Phase (From 2007 onward) Human Resources Department (HRD). To maintain the payroll, a job of “time-keeper” was strongly placed to record workers in-out time and including over time (OT) work, wage disbursement
etc. This activity was controlled by the concerned Production Manager PM), then the most powerful and unchallenged authority. 2nd Phase (From 2000 to 2006)

Personnel Department

With the growth of businesses, it was difficult for the production managers to control the activities beyond their capacity. Increased numbers of employees, their payroll, issuing appointment letters, Identity (ID) Cards, calculation of overtime hours, store, security, loader etc. were not possible for a single head and hand. So, the term “time keeping” section got converted to “Personnel Department”. But in many cases functional authority remained in the arena of production manager. migration is a common and chronic problem of the sector. Production costs have gone up and this trend will continue due to periodical wage upgradations, safety improvements, material costs etc. there is no way rather than productivity
improvements and product diversifications. To do so, trained and skilled importance of human resource planning is a must.

The requirement of HRD did not come out from the factories’ side. They
appointed HR people to comply with the requirements of audits. Maximum
responsibility with no or minimum authority made them dissatisfied performing their job. If there were any conflict between human resources department and production department, top management were always in favor of production department, as most of them considered production department on income side and human resources department on expenditure side. Since, HRD was not to shape the business in corporate culture or in a structured form, so necessary authority was not delivered to make the department functional in the sector, except a few exceptions. Lack of required skills, fear of losing jobs and dissatisfaction are common among the HR members.

To understand RMG industry, one has to first try to understand the background of the workforces before knowing about their management. In our RMG industry, it is very significant to consider the background of workforces – who work in the core value stream. The people in core value stream in the industry are from below poverty line, under privileged, less educated i.e. marginal group of the society. The total number of the workers of the factories under the case study are 8830. Out of total manpower, 51% is male and 49% is female. Among the total manpower, around 55% are from Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions. In contrary, the workers from Sylhet and Chittagong are less in number i.e. 0.45% and 3.34% respectively.

The graph shows that the females are more in number from Barisal, Chittagong, Sylhet, Dhaka, Mymenshing divisions, and more number of males are from Rangpur, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions.
Among the various departments and grades, females are mostly employed in sewing section. According to minimum wages Gazette for Bangladesh garment industry grade 7 for helper and grades 6- 3 are for General operator, Junior operator, Operator and Sr. Operator respectively.
Out of total 7786 workers 55% i.e. 3495 workers are female while 45% is male. Females are more in the positions of lower grades. In the grades 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 females are 62%, 66%, 59% , 52, and 46 respectively. Out of total more than 45% workers are in grade 4 whereas in grade 3 and 5 it is 14.32% and 10.34% which indicate that factories are highly depended on migrated skilled workers. In a garment factory operators are the lifeline both in number and in operation of the industry. The supervisor is the 1st line management in RMG manufacturing unit. They supervise the operators’ functions and are responsible for production targets. They play a very crucial role and make the communication bridge between the workers and the upper management. Normally an experienced male operator is promoted to next higher position Junior Supervisor. In the industry though the females are more in number yet we see very poor numbers of female in supervisory position.

The posts supervisors or line chiefs and above are captured by the males. In
supervisory level, out of total 680 supervisors only 32 are females which is only 5% of total supervisors. In officer category total manpower is 266 and of them 91% i.e. 243 are from male. In managerial position the scenario is the worst than supervisory and officer levels, i.e. only 1 out of 98 managers is female. This is an example of non-functional or absence of human resources planning of the industry. In RMG sector span of service life in a particular factory is very short. More than 41% of total manpower have less than one-year service with the present companies. More than 80% manpower have been working in the same company for less than 4 years.

According to BLA – 2006

1. A worker who has completed ten years of continuous service or more shall be paid at the rate of thirty days (section 27, 4b) wages for every completed year.
2. If the service length is five years more or but below ten-years calculation
should be at the rate of fourteen days (section 27, 4a).
3. There is no provision of service benefits for the workers who serve a
company for less than five years. There is a relationship between the service length and service benefit. Workers presence in the same company after 5 years is alarmingly low. It was known that the situations compel the workers to leave the factory before 10-years services due to legal obligations to pay higher service benefits. Thus experienced workers are to change the factories frequently.
RMG industry is a temporary filed of employment for the employees. It has not any life time plan for its’ workers. A worker can survive till he/she can serve the industry. With a temporary plan with its workers industry’s sustainable development is not possible.
A functional HR hardly exists in the industry. Study revealed, big companies of Bangladesh RMG sector are suffering from lack of modern management
concept. If we fail to address appropriate measures the day is not very far when this sector will be a history as it happened in the case of jute, golden fibre of Bangladesh. Now the question is of survival or be perished. For the survival following measures can be taken –
Industry efficiency is highly depended on the supervisors. When cost is the
biggest concern it will be a luxury to continue with traditional way of doing
things. If a factory can attract technically trained people for the supervisory
posts then it would be easier to compete with its competing countries in regards to efficiency and productivity. To create a congenial working environment and to ensure a long run growth of the sector HRP must initiate the changes from supervisory level.
The focus of discussion on minimum wage gives a perception to the common people that the sector pays as minimum as possible in all of its functional areas.
It is unknown to the many that the sector is the highest payer of wages in
Bangladesh private sector context. This encasing of information backfired to attract talented students to the industry. To reduce dependency on traditional production managers, some of the companies have been, though in limited

Scale, trying to involve the Industrial & Production Engineers (I&PE) in its
production department. But most of the cases the relationship between the
traditional managers and the modern engineers is not functional. As a result, expected outcome is yet to be reached.
Bangladesh RMG business is highly dependent on foreign professionals. The
owners are very polite with foreign staffs simultaneously they are, in many
cases, very rough and tough to the locals. Workers and officers, due to inherited colonial mentality, are more attentive and obedient to the foreigner as a boss rather than local boss. Sometimes buyers get confidence if there is any foreigner in their sourcing factory. A foreigner in senior position prefers to recruit the persons under him from his own country. Most of them have average job skills compared to locals but their better communication skills help them
better manage their customers. Ensuring a working environment, empowering HRD, industry can hunt local talents from all disciplines, as the sectors’ pay and perks are more than any other sector for the deserving ones. This way industry can minimize dependency on foreign nationals.
Identify the KPI (key performance indicators) against each position. Each
achievement will be expressed/transformed into numeric values. Organization will follow transparent appraisal method instead of confidential appraisal system. One can evaluate his/her performance by himself/herself. To achieve better score he/she can make effort. In this process the grievance, dissatisfaction
and frustration will be minimized and a healthy competition will prevail among the members of the organization.
If supervisor is the 1st line management then assistant production manager or floor in-charge is the in-line management. Department heads, production
manager and factory manager are in midlevel management. Soon after any
incident takes place in any factory the top managements’ and association
leaders’ immediate reaction is like “it is the failure of mid management”. This incompetency of mid management story is being told decades after decades.
Have the industry leaders or factory owners taken any noticeable initiative to improve their competency? Incidents are taking place at regular intervals and criticisms also are voiced in similar nature. Then the question is why no improvement efforts can be made? It is the owners’ attitude that they will not delegate their authority that they have been exercising over the decades. The owners will make HR, mid management responsible, for the failure, they will assign work load to a particular person or department but they will not delegate proper authority with the assigned responsibility. Without authority no one can exercise his/her responsibility. For the functional HRD this authorization is extremely needed.

It is commonly remarked by the entrepreneurs that they are not having qualified candidates to recruit though the organization has the number of vacancies. In contrary, students after completing their academic life they remain unemployed, and they think that is due to lack of suitable job opportunities. Both are the harsh realities when education system and industry demand do not match. Most of our students are now enrolling themselves in the business faculty where the number of the student in science faculty is decreasing alarmingly. In Bangladesh, education system could not adopt the changing demand of the industry due to lack of communication between the academicians and the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can share their experience to the students and
academicians can contribute to the industry with their knowledge. Here,
government role is very crucial to make the bridge between the parties. The
entrepreneurs can open up internship opportunities for the students and the government, through policy making, can encourage students to study science more in number.

The RMG sector has flourished in a very scattered way. Unplanned expansion of production capacity without development of importance of human resource planning management has created the dependency on foreign professionals. There was no effective management system for maintaining the labor intensive industry like the RMG. The sector is highly influenced by the theory “X” of Douglas McGregors (1906-1964) where extreme negative approaches towards the workers were perceived. Employee dissatisfaction, absence of job security, low retention rate etc. is very common in the sector. One single department, Human Resources, is responsible for multiple works. They have a huge work load with minimum or no authority. They cannot involve themselves in workers training and development and motivational activities. Moreover, department itself has weakness to manage the functions effectively. importance of human resource planning

Conclusion

Recently the government, apex bodies and some of the brands have taken
different initiatives like Skills for Employment Investment Program (SEIP),
The Centre of Excellence for Bangladesh Apparel Industry (CEBAI) to develop operational and managerial skills for the apparel industry. but Much more is needed to be sustainable as Bangladesh RMG sector will lose LDC-specific benefits in 2027 like duty free access to European Union which is one of the major attractions for the importers. Considering the importance of the problem, an in depth and immediate study is needed in this particular area which is still missing. If the sector fails to address this crucial issue, then importance of human resource planning may lose the present business share.