Recent news reports about the massive riots that unfolded in Dhaka last week have once again brought Bangladesh into the public eye. Thousands of garment workers blocked traffic and clashed with police to protest an inadequate wage hike and poor working conditions. The latest pay raise - the first since 2006 - increased the official minimum wage from 1,300 takas to 3,000 takas (44$) a month, while workers and labour rights groups were demanding 5,000 taka (74$) a month. These protests are only the newest in a countless string of often violent incidents, including a particularly troubling one in October 2009 involving the shooting of three workers by police during a peaceful protest in Tongi.
Yet the textile business is booming in Bangladesh - Wal-Mart, Tesco, H&M, Zara, Carrefour, Gap, Metro, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer, Kohl’s, Levi Strauss and Tommy Hilfiger all import in bulk from the country. But far from indicating a more competitive industry, this shift has more to do with restrictions from Northern nations on China than actual innovation with regards to the labour force. The sad reality is that labour conditions in Bangladesh are brutal, and Bangladeshi garment workers are the lowest-paid in the world, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, a labour-rights group based in Vienna.
The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) was set up in 1993 to oversee the industrial activities in special Export Processing Zones (EPZs) set up by the government to earn export dollars and attract foreign capital by offering “a congenial investment climate, and [a] location free from cumbersome procedures.” What does that mean exactly to the foreign investor? How about 10 year tax holidays, the duty-free import of capital goods and raw materials, no ceiling on investment and full repatriation of profits, to name just a few? Furthermore, national labour laws do not apply in the EPZs, giving BEPZA total control over working conditions and wages. Needless to say, a blanket ban on strikes and trade union activity has also been imposed.
Taken by the author while working in Bangladesh in 2008.
