Vulnerabilities of Women Workers in the Readymade Garment Industry of Bangladesh: A Human Rights Challenge

This article discusses the challenges faced by women workers in the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh. It highlights the unethical practices adopted by the industry, including child labor, low wages, and poor working conditions. The article emphasizes the need for sustainable business operations and ethical practices to protect the human rights of employees.

RUNNING HEAD: A Human Right Challenge 0
A Human Right Challenge
Garment Industry Of Bangladesh
(Student Name)
10/6/2018
Human right refers to natural rights which are free for human beings and fundamental
liberties permitted to an individual without the interference from any government or group of
people for any reason (Hammer, 2018). The civil liberty of individuals is protected by the

A Human Right Challenge 1
constitution of the country which defines them and the organization that exists to promote
them. The human right is applicable for every individual; under any circumstances, the
implementation of human right does not go unexcused in any place or situation (Grigorescu
and Komp, 2017). In the past decades, Bangladesh has considered as the second largest
exporter of garment in the world. It results, the liberalized trade policies which have attached
large-scale foreign investment (Hess, 2017). The increasing industry in Bangladesh provides
the opportunity of employment to the millions of people and distressing poverty rates (Kahn,
2018). Heaps of young women from rural areas earn employment, while international
garment retailers have also gained the access to effectively unlimited low-priced and low-
skilled labor which is ideal for the making of fast-fashion items (Belal, 2017).
With the growth in Bangladesh, human rights have been ignored by the industries (Dey and
Islam, 2015). It has been analyzed that the most extensive abuses of human rights has been
done in the ready-to-wear garment industry of Bangladesh such as child labor, forced labor,
restriction in human right, discrimination, lack of appropriate justice, insufficient
remunerations that cause living in poverty and the hazards at the workplace (Kerrissey and
Schuhrke, 2016). Moreover, Bangladesh has also indorsed most of the essential rights treaties
and concords, which have been designed to protect the rights of individual globally with
persist of violations (Kamruzzaman and Hakim, 2016). Bangladesh has considered one of the
main corrupted countries in the world, which created a negative impact on their socio-
economic development. In the garment industry of Bangladesh, everyone thinks about their
profit and interest, to achieve the target they can go to any extent and adopted the unethical
practice (Risse and Wollner, 2015). In this particular research work, it has been analysing that
Rana Plaza greatly concentrates to manage the relationship with Zara and Primark through
adopting unethical practices like the engagement of child labor (Siddiqui and Uddin, 2016).
The garment industries in the Bangladesh have adopted an unethical way to get success in the

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business. After the disastrous incident in 2013, in the case where accident was occurred in the
factory of Rana Plaza, it was situated in outskirts of the capital named Dhaka which was
collapsed and 1,138 labors were killed in textile along with more than 2000 people were
injured (Bair, 2017). The incident was happened because of the unethical practice adopted by
the Rana Plaza. The authorities of Bangladesh was failed to fulfill each of their obligations
towards protecting the human rights of the employees. The management of Rana Plaza did
not meet any of the security and safety code. It also built and expanded their factory without
the permission of any authorities; it was unethical on the part of the firm and its owners. The
main unethical practice found in the case was, the building of the factory was built without
the permission of authority. Second, the conversion took place from marketable use to the
industrial use (Berik, 2017). Third, use of substandard material for construction of the
building that was the last reason for collapse and also leads towards a burden on building a
structure which was provoked by the vibration because of the generator and many other
heavy and moving tools and equipment.
Most of the industries in Bangladesh, exploiting their employees, in the textile
manufacturing industries, the women are the most attractive resources for them. The women
are hire in the low wage rate. They mostly prefer young, unmarried and little-educated
women belong from the poor rural families (Al-Amin and Hoque, 2015). The main reason to
hire unmarried women is with the belief that the women have no family obligation that would
interfere with their working hours. The overtime is mandatory and workers often force to
work up to twenty hours when there is a rush to produce an order. The women are not
allowed to speak while working and are fired around the age of 30. The industries are
adopting the unethical practice by providing unsafe factory condition, doing inhumane
treatment, verbal assaulting, physically abusing, or firing from the job without any reason.
The spatial segregation of the sexes in the factory is an outward expression of genders wages

A Human Right Challenge 3
segregation with the few men at the higher level; they have jobs with higher wages and more
control. After recognizing that they have fallen subjects to gender hierarchy, the women drop
their concerns and attempts to unionize in a fear of being harassed or sexually assaulted and
give up searching for a vice on the floor of the factory (Mostafa and Klepper, 2017).
The garment industries also employ child labor in the process of production and
manufacturing which is an unethical practice according to the law of nation and legislation
against child labor. In the law and regulation, it is clearly stated that no child should be
employed in any factory or industry whose age is below 14 years old. If any organization
adopts such practices, that group will be consider as a serious offense and will be punishable
under the law. After knowing the facts, an industry engages children in their business to
overcome their organizational issues workers (Kabir, Maple and Fatema, 2018).
The workers are also facing the problem during the working hours and outside the workplace.
The industries in Bangladesh, violating the rights of human which are explained further:
Firstly, It is the right of a human to be paid a sufficient wage to serve the basic need. Wages
and benefits are one of the primary interests an employee may have. There is a wider range of
law introduced to protect the right of wages of the employees. But in Bangladesh, most of the
garment industries are paying low wages to their employees which are against the human
rights. Secondly, it is right of every employee to take a minimum amount of paid leave which
is called statutory leave, the employees in the garment industry of Bangladesh has not
provided any kind of leaves or holidays. Third, it is the right of an employee to get support
from the organization and to get welfare (Akhter, Rutherford and Chu, 2017). Various
programs have been sponsored by many organizations in different countries, but the situation
of garment industries in Bangladesh is contradicting, instead of arranging welfare programs,
the company torturing their employees physically and mentally even they sexually harass

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their employees. Fourth, the employees have the right to compensate for any injury occurred
under the general international law, but in the case of Rana Plaza, they have not received any
compensation from the company. Lots of people were died and injured in the case of Rana
Plaza but still, the company did not compensate to their employees, it is against the human
right and law. Fifth, each and every employee has a right to be provided safety in the
workplace. Employees have the right in a workplace, which is sensibly free of safety and
health hazards, but in Bangladesh, the company has ignored such things and equipped with
poor ventilation system and in most of the companies has also not provided the facility of fire
exist or fire alarm which shows the unhealthy environment in the organizations of
Bangladesh. Sixth, the garment companies of Bangladesh exploiting their employees and
force them to work more than 20 hours which is against their human right, because every
employee has a right to get leisure time instead they are doing work more than their working
hours. These points represent that the human is facing challenges in the workplace of
Bangladesh and shows as a negative outlook to them of the society (Freeman, 2017).
Sustainability in business operation of garment industries is a growing issue for the
entrepreneurs of Bangladesh after the incidents of Tazreen and Rana Plaza. The RMG
industry of Bangladesh is the main catalyst for the economy of the country. It was blamed by
the customers for the lack of implementation of sustainability issues in the factories. The
sustainability of the environment is the emerging and most important issues at the recent
phase of industrialization. It is considered as the burning issue in the country. In the recent
scenario, the buyers of apparel are now focusing on the eco-friendly way of production. The
garment industries of Bangladesh need to adopt cleaner and improved technology and
management for the better environment in order to achieve its goals. The goals of sustainable
developments are affordable and clean energy, water, and sanitation, innovation

A Human Right Challenge 5
infrastructure in the industries, climate actions and responsible production and consumption.
It is mostly ignored by the garment industries of Bangladesh (Belal, 2017).
With the increasing demand for eco-friendly and sustainable products, Bangladesh has
perceived as an unsustainable sourcing destination. The adding to the history of Bangladesh
of anti-activity, since the 1990s the American Federation of Labour and Congress of
Industrial Organization has lodged four separate complaints with the US government about
the failure to adhere to standards of labor rights. Despite, millions of dollars were investment
after the case of Rana Plaza, the perception remains that workers of Bangladesh still face a
serious threat to their safety and dignity at their workplace. It is deterring ethically-minded
companies from manufacturing there. The combination of domestic instability and external
completion threaten the garment industries of Bangladesh and it's broader economy unless
the owners of the factory push themselves towards meaningful reforms (Zaman, Brudermann,
Kumar and Islam, 2018).
The unethical practice adopted by garment industries in Bangladesh affected at the global
level. The managers of every company play a prominent role at the global level. The manager
must adopt the ethical practice in the organization. In the case of Rana Plaza, the company
should adopt business ethics to get back their reputation in the competitive marketing world.
The manager should adopt common ethics to cater the healthy environment to their
employees. The company should follow and respect the human rights of the employees to
promote the products in the organization. If the employees feel motivated, they will work
more efficiently and effectively (Akhter, Rutherford and Chu, 2017).
From the above, it can be concluded that the situation of Bangladesh is going to be worse
because of the unethical practices adopted by the garment industries in Bangladesh. The
employees in Bangladesh are exploited by the garment industries. The case of Rana Plaza

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also occurred in which the whole building was collapsed because of the carelessness of the
organization in which lots of people were died as well as injured. The company has not
adopted ethical practices within their workplace. It shows that the company caters an
unhealthy environment for their employees. The employees are exploited by the companies.
This is the visibility case which is highlighted but certain other companies also do the same
thing. It is time for all the companies to adopt the ethical practice in their organization
because the incident of Rana Plaza affected at a global level. Therefore, the companies need
to take a further step towards the sustainable business by setting a sustainable goal for the
business. By adopting ethical practices, the companies can set their image at the global level
and help to increase their productivity.

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