Workers at a garment factory in Narayanganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka: Women from different parts of Bangladesh come to cities to work in the garment sector. (Sipa via AP Images)
DHAKA — Bangladesh’s female-dominated garment industry is about to be less so now that factory owners have agreed to hire equally among the sexes, an answer to the country’s worsening unemployment problem and an acquiescence to garment workers’ demands.
The demand was one of 18 made by the workers, who also asked for a new wage structure that would lead to raises and help workers cope with severe inflation.
Factory owners accepted these requests in late September after a month of protests.
The demand for equal employment opportunities came mainly from male workers. With employers in recent years providing fewer jobs in the nation of 171.2 million, the number of unemployed Bangladeshis reached 2.64 million in June, according to a quarterly survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Syed Nazrul Islam, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the global industry hires mostly females due to their “smooth handling of sophisticated fashion works.” Women, in general, have a reputation in the industry for being better at sewing than men, while men are seen as more suited to ironing and other physically demanding jobs.
The garment industry has contributed to women’s empowerment in impoverished Bangladesh to some extent. However, the ratio of female workers in the country’s garment industry has already declined to about 57%, compared with around 80% in the 1990s, according to Mapped in Bangladesh.
In other big clothing manufacturing countries like China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan and India, factories are mostly filled with female workers.
Women make up over 80% of the garment-making workforce in Cambodia, 79% in Vietnam and 70% in India, according to the United Nations International Labour Organization and other data.
Bangladesh is set to move even further away from that model.
“We have to think about this [new demand] and move on based on that reality,” said Islam, who also manages a garment-producing company, adding that the industry should give preference to male workers in fresh recruiting drives. “We need productivity. If that is possible with men, why not hire them?”
This demand has also been inspired by the success of the anti-discrimination student movement, Islam noted, referring to the mass uprising that in early August toppled longtime Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina’s government.
The students, also concerned with the country’s unemployment problem, had called for abolishing a system that reserved a certain number of government jobs for favored groups.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Center for Policy Dialogue, a Dhaka-based think tank, says this could be disastrous, noting that the apparel industry is so competitive that entrepreneurs cannot afford to hire equal numbers of men and women due to the risk of losing productivity.
Equal employment “in the name of non-discriminatory appointment is unacceptable in this sector,” he said. “Rather, the appointment of people who are capable, and with whom the sector can maintain overall competitiveness, is sensible.”
Moazzem pointed out that factory owners maintain a biometric database through which workers who join movements that agitate for labor demands are blacklisted. Once they are blacklisted, their opportunities for work in the garment sector are severely limited.
Instead of trying to realize equality, “the reasons behind blacklisting male workers need to be addressed to let them work without any hindrances,” he noted.
Kalpona Akter, executive director at the Bangladesh Center for Workers’ Solidarity, a labor rights nonprofit organization, said factory owners have shown an unwillingness to employ men because they tend to be the leaders of labor protests.
“Whenever any labor movement takes place, mainly the male workers face comparatively higher harassment — including police investigations — are blacklisted, and will not get jobs in the apparel sector anymore,” she told Nikkei Asia.
This has helped spur workers to demand that male workers be appointed equally, or that there should at least be no male-female discrimination in the hiring process.
source : asia.nikkei