Human Rights Violations in the Garment Industry of Bangladesh

This essay discusses the violation of human rights in the garment industry of Bangladesh, including limitations on union rights, forced workforce, child labor, inadequate wages, and security threats. It also explores the responsibility of managers to respect human rights and improve working conditions.

Running Head: ESSAY 0
sustainibility and business
SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
STUDENT DETAILS:

ESSAY 1
From last decades, Bangladesh has developed as the second biggest exporter of garments in
the world because of open trade strategies or procedures, which have attracted foreign
investment at large scale. The rising industry has given the nation with much required capital
to restrain disturbing poverty rates by providing the employment to many young females
from backward areas, when international apparel retailers have attained access to practically
unrestricted cheap and low-skilled work ideal for the manufacturing of fast-fashion
substances. However, it is a predictable consequence that many basic human rights,
recognised both in international human rights law and developed in national legislature of
Bangladesh have been ineffectively imposed so as not to interfere with the extremely
profitable industry.
In this essay, violation of human rights readymade garment industry of Bangladesh,
limitations on the union rights of staff, forced workforce, judgment, child labour, and
improper criminal justice, inadequate wages that amount to surviving in poverty and security
threats at workplace. Notwithstanding the facts that Bangladesh has sanctioned most basic
human rights treaties and settlements that have been framed to safeguard the rights of people
worldwide.
Latest accidents in reviewed and practised garment factories state that present social
agreement initiatives and corporate social responsibility efforts that are significantly
intentional in nature have been improper to overcome the several security matters and labour
issues related to labour which happen in the garment factories which manufacture clothes for
the western retailers. The incapability of the human rights administration to secure the
personal rights and powers from financial influences as well as deficiencies in the legal rule
and corporate responsibility call for substitute procedures that will be showed as a response to
the continuing labour abuses. Several initiatives established by international performers that

ESSAY 2
aim to specify and recover the conditions related to labour will be assessed as well as various
socio-economic elements behind the bad understanding of the powers (Glazer, 2017).
Bangladesh is the nation of scarceness and overpopulation. It may use overpopulation as
human resource to eliminate the poverty by itself. The apparels industry is most acceptable
sector, in which overcrowding may be used. It can be considered by making focus on
important elements for example lower priced material, less cost of workforce, early
manufacturing with inexpensive labour. However, slowly the commercial and close
atmosphere of apparel factories becomes a problem of human right due to deadly incidents. It
is found that various incidents are the general occurrence in this sector. There are many
elements, which made the garment sector tricky. It is very important to make the garment
industry of Bangladesh secure for the employees. The secure surroundings would help to
decrease possible issues related to various threats. These various threats are not only the
reason for danger events but also major problem of harm and damages in production. This
incident influence adversely on sustainability and productivity. As per this, human rights for
secure functioning conditions are considered as international norms. There are many reasons,
which push adversely forward to insecure operational conditions.
The object of the essay is to show the matters related to functioning condition in apparel
factories in Bangladesh. The matter shows previous and latest insecure functioning conditions
in apparel factory from point of view of contraventions of human rights. There are many
factors, which are required to be considered such as high occurrence of damages and harms
on job by staff, less rate of wages employees, deficiency of the disbursement of grosses to
staff, issues related to quality of air in factory, deficiency of security elements in factory and
answers of garment industry to stakeholders of outsiders.

ESSAY 3
Bangladesh claims maximum population concentration in world. Approximately 164 million
person are residing in the nation (Belal, 2017). In 2010, about 4 million people out of these
164 million individuals were engaged in textile sectors (Prentice, 2018). In nation where
poverty and overpopulation increase, the garment industries face various challenges related to
human rights. The textile business has raised steeply in the country because of favourable
trade policies applied by the governance system of Bangladesh in 1980. When these methods
were first familiarised, there were about fifty plants of textile were making clothes and
engaging many workers. From the year 2000, more than 3,000 factories were there, which
made employment of 1.8 million people and produced overall export of more than 6.4 billion
$. In garment factories, 80 percent were females. This ratio of female employees remains
similar in present time (Reinecke and Donaghey, 2015).
In Bangladesh, females are a smart resource for textile manufacturers. Females are salaried a
lesser wage in comparison of males. Females who are in the garment factories are generally
young, single, less educated and are from backward and rural platform. It permits the owners
of factory to command the working situations in garment factory. Further, the reasons are
provided by Paul-Majumder and Begum that why females contain majority of the staff in
garment industry in Bangladesh. The elements involve patience of women, lively nature of
females. Furthermore, main reason is that females are better behaved than males. They are
well disciplined in comparison of males (Alam, et. al, 2017). There have not various
opportunities to get other job. In this way, they are less probable to support a trade union. In
the addition of this, the owners of factory have required that there should be compulsory
pregnancy test of freshly hired women. The wish to employ single females is depended upon
faith that the females will have no responsibilities towards the families, which would restrict
the working hours in the workplace (Siddiqui and Uddin, 2016).

ESSAY 4
In Bangladesh, the working conditions of textile factories are defined as congested and
complex to move around in and furnished with the bad aeration system. Further, due to the
bad ventilation system, the workforce was unprotected to poisonous dirt, which would drift in
air. The employees were uncovered to other toxic constituents like bleaches required to
colour materials during procedure of production. There are many factories, which did not
have any exhaust for ventilation. Many factories also did not give masks of breathing for the
workforce. Additionally, there were extra-secured threats involving having no fire exit and
alarm for fire in various producing amenities (Hideki, 2015).
Furthermore, the major requirements were not specified for the workforce. According to
survey conducted in the garment factories, it was found that there was one washroom for
every sixty-one women workers (Campo, 2017). On the other hand, the ratio was one
washroom for every thirty-one men workers. Generally, the men workers employed in the
high skilled zones or departments of the factories that involve the areas of cutting and
ultimate areas. Usually, there were also no conference room or room for lunch. There were no
arrangements for drinking water for workforce in textile plants. In 2012, workers in garment
factories of Bangladesh were earning about 50 $ monthly which is, paradoxically more than
the minimum wages of 37 $ monthly (Hasan and Mahmud, 2017). In the addition of this, the
workers are regularly not made promised advantages. These advantages include annual
appraisals, attendance bonus per month or the seventeen much needed paid holidays.
Moreover, the workforce average 4 hours of extra time on the regular basis but are ordinarily
paid for 2 hours on daily basis (Velinova, 2014).
The duty to respect human rights is global norm of anticipated conduct for factories. The
global managers greatly affect by the violation of human rights in the garment industries. In
the case of poor working conditions, if workers of garment factory had more of a voice, it is
exclusively possible that the conditions that led to the many deaths, harms, and grievance

ESSAY 5
scan be stopped (Wadud, Huda and Ahmed, 2014). In the absence of trade union, the workers
in garment factory were helpless to fight with their managers who ordered, exposed, and
persuaded them to enter the doomed building. The mangers are responsible for the
management of the human rights of the stakeholders. They are responsible for the fair,
transparent, and ethical working conditions. In the absence of these transparent, fair, and
ethical working conditions, the managers are held responsible (Stanwick and Stanwick,
2015).
There is no doubt that the garments sector in Bangladesh is considered as risky working
environment. The most occurring incidents include the fire incident in textile industries of
Bangladesh. It is the most likely incident in garment factories of Bangladesh (Rahman, Islam
and Arif, 2016). It is also a deadly incident. For these incidents, owner, government system,
workers and administration are liable for managing the building collapse risks and fire
incidents in garment factories. The owner, government, workforce and administration are
required to be aware of decreasing the chances by adopting the managing technologies
(Mizanuzzaman, 2016).
It is required by manager to have knowledge of human rights in respect of communities or
factories within which they operate. The managers are required to follow the due diligence
procedure. They should involve all the shareholders to recognise measure and rank the risks
of human rights and related issues and chances. It is a responsibility of manager to develop a
case for insertion of the basic human rights in the strategies related to manufacturing process
or business, approaches and policies. The managers should also consider the legal, functional,
environmental, and operational risks. To avoid the issues, the managers should make sure that
all the workers should be educated and skilled in the aspects of human rights. The managers
are required to create the human rights indicators. They should apply the data collection
method. They should review and examine the activities related to human rights. The regular

ESSAY 6
assessment of impacts of human rights is much needed by the global managers to avoid
challenges in manufacturing industry, issues, and problems. They should make the proper
approaches to stop the human rights violation. The mangers should make sure that the issues,
challenges, and problems related to human rights are communicated in proper way to all the
shareholders. They should report the practices such as integrated report (Ahmed and Hossain,
2009).
As per the above analysis, it is concluded that there are various legal, practical, and financial
issues handled by the garment factories in Bangladesh. There various initiatives are required
to be taken to increase assistance between shareholders at the national and global level. The
managers should enhance the working conditions of the garment industry. The responsibility
and transparency human rights due diligence of textile industries should be increased. There
should be an incentive system for corporations with human rights conduct. There is
requirement of fair, proper, transparent, and effective measures for access to remedy for
offenders of human rights abuses by inside or outside the garment industry. There should be
core standards like occupational health and safety, norms related to health, abolition of sexual
harassment and violence in the place of work. There should be good and decent working
conditions for the workforce in the garment industry. It is clear from the above analysis that
the producers have responsibilities to involve in regular efforts to recognise the dangers,
threats, and issues in the procedure of production with the standards related to health and
safety. In this way, a resolution for permanent improvement of operational conditions for
employees of textile industry in Bangladesh is to integrate the establishment of more
inclusive corporate social responsibility approach related to problems of comprehensive
outsourcing.

ESSAY 7

ESSAY 8
References
Ahmed, J. U., and Hossain, T. (2009) Industrial safety in the readymade garment sector: A
developing country perspective. Sri Lankan Journal of Management, 14(1), pp. 1-13.
Alam, M.A., Banarjee, S., Sharmin, S., and Akter, M. (2017) Victimization and Violation of
Rights of Women in Garments Sector in Bangladesh: A Study on Women Garments Workers
of Ashulia, Savar, Dhaka. Bangladesh institute of labour studies-bils, 25(6), p. 53.
Belal, A. (2017) Social and environmental accountability in developing countries.
In Development-Oriented Corporate Social Responsibility, 1, pp. 167-180.
Campo, C. (2017) Does Trade Trump Law in the Protection of Human Rights: International
Trade, Law, and Human Rights in South Africa and South Korea. Journal review, 25, p. 299.
Glazer, N. (2017) National Human Rights Commissions in Asia. In Sovereignty Under
Challenge, 45(9), pp. 65-92.
Hasan, M., and Mahmud, A. (2017) Risks Management of Ready-Made Garments Industry in
Bangladesh. International Research Journal of Business Studies, 10(1).
Hideki, S. (2015) Preventing Factory Fires through Contracts: Case study of Garment
Factories in Bangladesh. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 5(4), pp. 09-
13.
Mizanuzzaman, M. (2016) Loss and Damage Assessment in the Context of Fire Hazards: A
Study on Selected Garment Factories in Bangladesh. International Journal of Finance and
Banking Research, 2(2), p. 24.
Prentice, R. (2018) Workers’ right to compensation after garment factory disasters: making
rights a reality. New York: Springer.

ESSAY 9
Rahman, S M., Arif, M. M. H., and Islam, M. S. (2016) IFTAR Business Process and
Strategies: A Study of IFTAR Shop in Rangpur City-Corporation. Science Journal of
Business and Management 4(4), pp. 127-131.
Rahman, S M., Islam, M. S., and Arif, M. M. H. (2016) Investment Approval Process of
ISLAMIC Banking - An Identical Investment Approval Process Model: A Case Study on
Some Selected Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. International Journal of Business and
Economics Research, 5(5), p. 155.
Reinecke, J., and Donaghey, J. (2015) After Rana Plaza: Building coalitional power for
labour rights between unions and (consumption-based) social movement
organisations. Organization, 22(5), pp. 720-740.
Siddiqui, J., and Uddin, S. (2016) Human rights disasters, corporate accountability and the
state: Lessons learned from Rana Plaza. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
Journal, 29(4), pp. 679-704.
Stanwick, P., and Stanwick, S. (2015) The garment industry in Bangladesh: A human rights
challenge. Journal of Business & Economic Policy, 2(4), pp. 40-44.
Velinova, R. (2014) The Case of Rana Plaza: A precedent or the severe reality?The Beagle: a
Journal of Student Research and Enterprise, 2(2).
Wadud, Z., Huda, F. Y., and Ahmed, N. U. (2014) Assessment of fire risk in the readymade
garment industry in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Fire Technology, 50(5), pp. 1127-1145.