Industrial unrest in garment sector of Bangladesh

There is an intense unrest situation is running in the garment sector of Bangladesh. There are lots of causes behind this scene. Most of the causes are unrest situation of government policy, economical condition, enforcement of law, low labor rate, decreasing capital. Bangladesh has now around 4,500 garment factories which employ over 3 million workers. The minimum monthly wage of a garment worker is now 1,662 taka (about $24) a month. The garment industry accounts for about 40% of Bangladesh's total industrial workforce.

Political situation: Bangladesh is a democratic country where two groups of political father lives and its easy to impose any policy and law how the party wants where its impossible to keep a stated legislation.

Economic condition: Bangladeshs economy is not well enough to fertilize this industry in world market where we have a great competitor china belongs to world market. We have a great lack in capital and efficient labor supply.

Enforcement of law and legislation: Enforcement of law and stated legislation is not well enough to keep the industry running for long. To keep running this industry we have to save the worker first.

The governments theory and thoughts: The government is worried about global media, and how they are reporting. Government expresses concerns over irking of western companies; they

are hardly worried about the causes of the workers. After the incidences, the government reacted sharply and assured the companies not to be worried.

Wage rate: The ongoing negotiation at the Minimum Wage Board for increasing the wages of garment factory workers has gained momentum after nine sittings in five months that were made fruitless by the reluctance of owners to raise wages by a reasonable extent. It is apparent from the statements of the government officials and Ministers that the owners are seemingly softening their position in the wake of fear that the unrest may spark off any time, if the demands of workers are undermined. As we came to know from various sources including media coverage that high ups of the government is exerting pressure on the owners to come down to a realistic and acceptable level of mark up of wage. Government sources are in apprehension that fixing even Tk. 2500(US$ 35) would not be reasonable amount for the workers to appease; angry protest will be triggered once again. A statistics shows that: Garment factory workers demand Tk 5000 fixed as minimum monthly wage of an entry-level garment worker, pointing out that the existing minimum wage of Tk 1,662 or $25 that was fixed in 2006, can no longer sustain a person because of the constant rise in the cost of living. The minimum wage of an entry-level Chinese worker is $166, of a Vietnamese $90, of an Indian $130 and of a Cambodian $66.

Raising cost of living: The day to day expense of living is increasing. Rising food and essentials prices are making the garment workers plight worse. The low wages have a disastrous effect on workers' livelihoods. The workers especially women are struggling to feed themselves and their kids, and their anger is boiling over.