Working Conditions and Lives of Female Readymade Garment Workers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Readymade garment industry is the prime foreign earning industry of Bangladesh where more than 4.2 million workers are working of which 90% workers are female who come from the rural areas of the country. The working conditions and the working lives of these female workers are hardly up to the standard. The working lives of these female workers are substantially disturbed by the unfavorable working conditions that lead to job dissatisfaction, job insecurity, and low productivity of the workers. These are due to not maintaining government compliances by these readymade garment (RMG) companies. Therefore, a serious concern has been raised by the national and international community regarding the working conditions and the working lives of these female workers of Bangladesh. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying the working conditions and the working lives of female readymade garment workers of Bangladesh. For conducting this study, both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data were collected by using a structured questionnaire. A total of 267 female workers were interviewed for this study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the present working conditions of the female workers and inferential statistical were used to identify the relationships between the overall working conditions and the working lives of the female workers. Results show that the female readymade garment workers of Bangladesh work under the suppressive working environment. Female workers are always exploited by their managers and supervisors due to gender difference and submissiveness. Managers also misbehave with them by capitalizing their illiteracy and submissiveness. Female workers are often disturbed by the male colleagues too at work place and outside the factory. They do not have freedom at work and have no promotion at work. This study suggests that the policymakers of this sector of industry should follow the industrial laws and create a favorable working environment which will be favorable for the female workers to work in this sector.

Keywords: Readymade Garment Industry, Female Workers, Working Conditions, Working Lives