Women's Employment - United Nations Research Institute for Social ...

Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco
employment is never guaranteed. Almost half of the women workers
of our survey had already worked in another factory and some of
them are in their fourth or fifth factory. The reasons for “job hopping”
are made apparent in the interview excerpt below:
The first time I got work it was with X firm which the vocational
training centre had mentioned to me. But the working conditions
were difficult and the wages low, so I left it pretty quickly. I was
without work for several months and then I got a job with another
firm at Kénitra. I stayed there three years. But I left it because the
exploitation was too great and the wages too little. Low wages are
typical in Kénitra. As my father died, I had to find a way of increasing
my income. So I thought of going to Salé (30 kms from Kénitra) and
to look for work there so I could help my family. I was sure that the
working conditions in Rabat or Salé would be better than those at
Kénitra. My family wasn’t against the idea. I left for Salé and there
I presented myself at a company which I had heard was the best in
that industrial district. The owners were foreigners: they were known
for their sympathy towards the workers and the wages were the best.
They paid the statutory minimum wage (SMIG). I was accepted when
they saw I had a dressmaking diploma and that I had worked with
other firms. I liked the work in this factory but the problem was my
supervisor: she was a very authoritarian woman who used to insult
us, especially me. She was always against me. I left the firm because
of this cheffa, even though I was better paid than where I am now. I
got 7.30 dirham an hour, but I left. I went to this factory when I saw
the girls lining up outside to ask for work. I was soon taken on,
especially after I had done a practical test on the sewing machine.
(Touria, worker in a garment factory)
For the employees who had already worked in another firm,
the duration of the previous job varied from a few months to more
than four years. More than half the women workers interviewed had
stayed at their previous place of employment less than two years.
Among the reasons given for leaving the previous job were: the low
wages, the working conditions, authoritarian work practices and
personal factors.
Instability of employment is not always a disadvantage to
women workers. They can use the existing system to accumulate
know-how, and when their jobs are in danger they too threaten to
leave and go and sell their experience elsewhere. The women workers
thus play on competition between the factories hoping to better their
position. The factory heads also attempt to use this accumulation of
skills to their own advantage:
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