Why did it occur and what needs to be done?

The destruction of factories and vehicles are to be vigorously condemned. There is no place for violent activities. The civil society must express condemnation unequivocally against such violent activities.

If workers are dissatisfied with their working conditions, there is a method to settle disputes peacefully through negotiations or even calling peaceful industrial strikes (in accordance with ILO Conventions ) but violence is to be deplored by all accounts. No one can justify such loss of property that is reportedly stood at Tk.400 crores. The persons accused of such reckless violence and wanton destruction deserve severe punishment under the law.

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Ready-made garments are the mainstay of country's export and constitute 76 percent of total exports, earning billions of dollars. Furthermore 95 percent of workers are young female, hailing mostly from rural areas. Their employment in this industry has set a quiet revolution in society where females have become bread-earners, instead of being burden on male members of their family.

The growth of garment industry has a multiplier effect on society and financial institutions. If they are wrecked, it will have` serious impact on all stakeholders including banks. Foreign direct investment will be affected, country's image will be further tarnished and therefore violence in this vital sector of economy is of great concern to all sections of society.

Why did it occur? Two sides of story
Everyone is asking as to why has it occurred and how did it spread so quickly and violently? Who are responsible and why? It is totally unacceptable to destroy factories, on which workers depend for their living.

Some of the owners reportedly attributed the cause of violence to conspiracy of external forces to harm the growing industry. It is argued in some quarters that 95 percent workers are female in the industry and they did not participate in violence. It is the outsiders or unknown persons who were responsible for encouraging violence to destroy the growing industry. Even some NGOs have been attributed behind the scene to the sad occurrences. This is a very serious allegation and needs to be examined in depth to find out the truth about it.

Others, on the other hand, argue that with billions of dollars of garment industry, how is that BGMEA was not able to detect such conspiracy? Is it not a massive failure of the institution to smell beforehand conspiracy against the industry? It seems reasonable to conclude that BGMEA has not set up commercial/economic intelligence unit within it to gather intelligence on garment sector and on its future market trend. Economic intelligence is a necessary component of a big industry in every country.

They also argue that “blame-game” has been the norm whenever anything untoward occurs in the country. They argue no one wants to put under self-scrutiny and every one wants to escape from responsibility by “blaming others.” It is easy to blame others and divert the attention to some thing else. Blaming game does not help the situation that has to be addressed boldly and squarely.

Some argue that conspiracy theory falls to a thin ice on the ground that no satisfied or happy worker can be encouraged to destroy factories. The simple psychological truth is that outside people cannot influence or cannot do anything with satisfied workers. The happy workers themselves will defend the factories from destruction.

Therefore many argue unless clear evidence exists, claim of conspiracy appears to be diversionary strategy to avoid responsibility and self-analysis.

For sometime, the image of garment industry took a battering among general public when the building of Spectrum in Savar collapsed, taking toll of human lives under the rubble. The KTS garment building in Chittagong was on fire where many workers died due to poor fire management practices. These two tragic incidents have demonstrated that within the garment industry all is not well. The BGMEA must ensure that all owners comply with the rules and that a fraction of owners of industries must not let other owners down.

There is a widespread perception that low pay, unusual period of working hours, insecurity of job, harassment of women workers, unhygienic working conditions, and non-payment of over-time are some of the problems that are associated with the industry.

It may also be argued that because female workers are helpless in getting their demands met, some one has to come to defend their rights unless the industry owners take action to meet their demands. No industry can prosper for long on exploitation of workers. If workers are happy and healthy, not only production increases but its quality as well.

Better management practice
What is necessary at this stage is self-examination by owners as to why it has occurred. It is reported that some owners are not playing with rules as laid by ILO Conventions and domestic laws. There should be 48 working hours for workers and overtime must be paid promptly. There must be a weekly holiday and they should work in humane conditions.

Employers and employees are partners in industry, not to be perceived as “master and servant” as existed in the Dickensian period after the industrial revolution in England.

The old and traditional relationship between employers and employees has disappeared and a new healthy partnership relation has come in place because one needs the other. Without workers no factory can run and at the same time, no worker can get a job without an industry that is built with hard work, imagination and money by owners. There exists a symbiotic relationship between the two.

It is not known whether BGMEA has a Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Unit to conduct survey from time to time, among others, to be aware of the sentiments and demands of workers. If legitimate demands are unmet, there is a tendency to accumulate and ultimately they burst, often with violence. The role of the Monitoring Unit should be to prevent such violent occurrences within the industry.

Another fact be taken into account is the current environment in the country. Gross disparity of income between rich and poor together with high price rise of essential commodities, severe load-shedding, scarcity of water in some areas near the capital and the heightened political temperature before the general election make many poor and deprived people alienated towards affluent class and their possessions. They look for an opportunity to express their anger and frustration and such disgruntled segment of society might have joined in the mayhem. Some say such group behaviour is known as “social catharsis.” This could be an additional reason for unprecedented nature of factory burning and destruction.

Certain necessary steps
There is a role of government to play through regular meetings of tripartite representatives: government representative, representative of owners and that of workers. Such meetings can be held monthly or periodically to monitor pulse of workers in the industry. The Tripartite meetings act as a safety valve and it is not known whether such meetings were held regularly or not.

Another fact is that there is no minimum wage for industrial workers in the country because there is a disagreement between employers and workers on fixation of a minimum wage across the board. If there is no fixed wage for a worker, the bargaining power remains with employer and this inequity is not desirable in this key industry. It generates tension and ultimately unrest.

Trade Union representatives want a flat wage for all workers whereas employers want sector-wise wage fixing. That means for each sector of industry, a minimum wage is to be fixed depending on profitability of each sector. There is a merit in employers' argument in sector-wise wage fixing.

Trade Union is almost banned in the EPZ. Often it acts as a red-herring to some workers because they cannot bargain effectively with owners as to their working conditions. It has been alleged that if any worker attempts to organise collective bargaining, the worker is sacked. There needs to be a mutually acceptable solution in this respect.

Trade Union by the workers and not by outsiders is a question that needs to be resolved. Furthermore each main political party has a labour wing and they allegedly tend to influence workers. Many argue that politicisation of Trade Union of garment workers is not desirable.

The government reportedly took steps to calm down the situation on 24 May by convening a tripartite meeting where all stakeholders have realised that compromise is the best solution. It is reported that a Wage Commission will soon look into the minimum wage in the garment industry.

The arson of factories has manifested that garment industry needs to be located within a separate zone to protect it from vandalism and destruction. Security would be much better if there is a special zone where all garment industries are located. The current practice of location of garment factories in various places within the city and suburbs poses not only security hazards for industry but also makes it an easy access for vandalism.

Conclusion
Human sentiment cannot be chanelled into a strict orderly mathematical fashion that human beings will always behave in a certain way. In human beings, rationality and animality exist together. When attribute of animality gets upper hand over rationality, violence occurs. When violence occurs, it attracts naturally rowdy and criminal elements and they exploit the situation to gain their objectives.

Prevention is always better than cure. The saying is not a cliché as recent violence has demonstrated that both owners and workers lose ultimately in the tussle. The growth of garment industry is to benefit both and it should be the objective of both parties. Any lopsided attitude will generate tension in the industry and it should be avoided at all costs.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.