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Trade unions, gender issues and the ready-made garment industry of Bangladesh 1990). With this example in mind, it is argued here that the time has now come for the garment factory owners in Bangladesh to look at the issue of unionism from a different angle. Instead of turning the industrial relationship of this new area of our most important private sector into a kind of “legitimate oligarchy” — leaving no scope for industrial peace due to an ever-increasing conflict between management and unions — both the owners and the unions should now follow, for the sake of their own enlightened self-interest, new avenues for predominantly female workers’ participation in management. The Industrial Relations Ordinance of 1969 provides various avenues for workers’ participation in management. At the level of the undertaking, works councils, joint consultation committees, and other systems of workers’ participation in decisions within undertakings provide the basis for a more active involvement of workers in the running of the enterprise with a view to developing their potential and improving the efficiency of the enterprise. At the national level, the principle of tripartitism in making policies affecting labour has been accepted in most developed countries (Khan, 1986). But, so far, such participation schemes have largely failed to produce the desired outcome in the private sector of Bangladesh. In the garment sector, as discussed above, the owners are emphatically against such types of workers’ participation because, rightly or wrongly, most garment factory owners fear that at some stage it would inevitably lead to an unhealthy collusion between political parties and trade unions which, in turn, would be prejudicial to improvements in productivity and the creation of a congenial working environment. Under these circumstances, the most useful way for facilitating female workers’ participation in industrial disputes in the RMG industries could be resorting to a kind of constitutional management on the part of the government, which could be attained, at least for the time being, through a variety of labour legislation and some other extra-constitutional measures. These could include the proper enforcement of the freedom of association in the RMG industries through various binding and non-binding contracts between the Department of Labour, federations of trade unions and the garment factory owners, enactment of anti-discrimination law and enforcement of equal pay for equal work provisions, and the introduction of a tax rebate for the RMG industry owner for implementing on-the-job training. However, whether or not such legislation and other measures would mark a dynamic change in the tangential situation of female garment workers is contingent upon the extent of their 215
Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco gradual socio-political empowerment as well as their ability to attain a level of participation that constitutes a distinctive “women’s voice” (not merely as women in unions) in labour-management disputes. Endnotes 1. The author would like to thank Nasreen Khundker, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, and Shahra Razavi and Yusuf Bangura, both from the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, for their incisive comments on the first draft. The author would also like to express his gratitude to Carol Miller, UNRISD, for providing the author with relevant literature at short notice. 2. Bhorer Kagoj, 5 March 1994, 18 May 1994, 19 February 1995, 27 February 1995, 3 April 1995, 7 August 1995; Dainik Sangbad, 20 February 1994, 27 May 1995, 6 January 1996; Banglabazar Patrika, 24 July 1995, 27 January 1996; Dainik Janakantha, 11 February 1995, 13 February 1995; Dainik Ittefaque, 3 June 1995, 9 September 1995, 2 January 1996; The Daily Star, 19 August 1995. 3. Typically done under section 18 of the Employment of Labour (Standing Orders) Act, 1965, although such an action amounts to by-passing the legal protection extended to union leaders by the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969 (Section 15). 4. Federations are obliged to maintain, under the Industrial Relations Ordinance of 1969, a register of members showing particulars of subscriptions paid by each member, an accounts book showing receipts and expenditures, and a minute book for recording the proceedings of meetings. 5. See rule 4(2) of the Industrial Relations Rules, 1977. 6. We were rather surprised to find out that despite its virtual non-existence for a considerable period, this federation’s registration had not been cancelled. This suggests negligence on the part of the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions in monitoring the activities of the registered federations of trade unions, which it is legally obliged to do. Evidence suggesting such negligence tends to support those owners and workers who regularly complain about the prevalence of widespread corruption both in the offices of the Registrar of Trade Unions and the Chief Inspector of Factories and Establishments. 7. However, one person who was named as the General Secretary of both a federation and a union was reported to have organized, in his individual capacity, a few demonstrations of garment workers in the Mirpur area when there were layoffs or labour-management conflicts in some factories of the locality. Although we did locate this person once, we failed, despite repeated attempts, to get any appointment for an interview. 216
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Women’s Employment in the Textile
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This United Nations Research Instit
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Acknowledgements Many people have b
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notwithstanding the inertia of the
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Carol Miller is a policy analyst on
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xii VII. Contribution of different
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Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Shahr
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Introduction Table 1: Basic indicat
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Introduction women have been tradit
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Introduction The chapters on Bangla
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Introduction occurs, on average, at
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Introduction women workers related
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Introduction in low-income countrie
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Introduction by repaying their “d
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Introduction participate in labour
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Introduction their bargaining power
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Introduction processing zones hypot
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Introduction IV. The case studies T
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Introduction experience in garment
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Introduction V. Conclusion Although
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Introduction improved technology. T
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Introduction References Afsar, R. (
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Introduction Household Power Relati
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Wage discrimination by gender in Mo
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Gender and employment in Moroccan t
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Gender dimensions of labour migrati
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Table 1: Total number of male and f
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Becoming a garment worker 5Becoming
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Becoming a garment worker garment w
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Becoming a garment worker 2. “I e
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