changes in the status of workers: bangladesh context in brief

Enamul Hafiz Latifee Senior Assistant Secretary, Research and Development Cell, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1575.0009 Year Published: 2016

Changes in the Status of Workers: Bangladesh Context in Brief

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 3

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4

2. Defining Status of Workers ................................................................................................ 5

3. Status of workers in pre-industrial society in brief............................................................. 7

4. Status of workers in quasi-post-industrial society in brief ................................................. 8

5. Change in the status of workers in Bangladesh Context .................................................. 11

6. Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 14

Page | 3 Changes in the Status of Workers: Bangladesh Context in Brief, https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1575.0009

Executive Summary

Interim stage identified and defined in this

study as quasi-post-industrial society

comprises some elements of industrial

society and some other components of

post-industrial society, the salient status of

workers are completely moved by this

stage’s all the characteristics. In addition,

there is a historical opposition between

capitalists and workers where sometimes

government takes a role to remove

exploitations and takes protective

measures to safeguard oppressors but in

this very competitive worldwide market,

sometimes, it has been also seen that, for

keeping down compliance costs, some

government bodies do not for hard

imposition of laws, and it is believed, this

motive gave birth to Rana Plaza collapse

in Bangladesh. But, after the accident,

everything changed dramatically and now

the workplace safety, economic freedom

and rightful job benefits are must to be

ensured here, which has changed the status

of workers as a whole. That is why, it can

be expressed that though change in the

workers’ status did take place in developed

countries from the very beginning

industrialization there, but here in

Bangladesh, the real visible qualitative

change in status of workers took place

after the 2013 AD. This report seeks

concerned government authorities to

execute formulated laws, policies, acts and

rules with better mechanisms as to ensure

development in parallel with United

Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development

Goals, ILO’s objectives and Vision 2021-

country perspective plan.


1. Introduction

Change in the status of workers toward

better height requires the integrated

approach among workers, private

stakeholders and government bodies. In

global context, the change has started from

the industrialization era, but in Bangladesh

context change in status of workers exactly

has started after the Rana Plaza collapse.

That unexpected breathe taking incident

revolutionized the way of thinking and

practicing from treating workers, which

has promised workers to get minimum

wage, believed to narrow down the

inequalities between rich and poor, to

alleviate poverty and empower women

further- these are seen to be goals and

suggestive steps of International Labour

Organization too. Well enough,

Bangladesh is now a lower-middle income

country which has shown appreciable

performance in policy formulations by

addressing the issues but still it lags

behind far away from practicing and

executing those.

However, this study report defines Status

of Workers, discusses status of workers in

pre-industrial society in brief, status of

workers in quasi-post-industrial society in

brief, change in the status of workers in

Bangladesh context, step by step and

finally put forward some recommendations

on the table to be taken on account with

proper understanding.

2. Defining Status of Workers

Origin of the word status had been derived

during late 18th

century, as a lawful term

meaning 'legal standing' from Latin,

exactly 'standing', from gaze 'to stand'.

Hence, status is word which indicates an

occupied position in society by any

individual or group of people and usually

social status can be segregated in two

parts, i.e., ascribed social status and

achieved status (page, 139, Doda, Z.,

20051). It had been believed that ascribed

status is by born phenomenon, for

instance, being a girl or boy, white or

brownish person, mother or father, etc.

Apart from this, achieved social status

had referred to be attained through

competitions, by making efforts and

commitments, amid of rival situations

taking apparently favorable win-win

decisions (page, 140, Doda, Z., 2005). For

example, being a student or teacher, in

industrial context, being a worker or

entrepreneur.

One of the major differences between

ascribed status and achieved status is that,

the former one had existed mostly in pre-

industrialized traditional world landscape

while the countries-societies emphasized

1 Doda, Zerihun. (2005). Introduction to Sociology.

Debub University. Retrieved from, http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/health/ephti/library/lecture_notes/health_science_students/ln_sociology_final.pdf [13 April, 2016]

more on ancestries, races, religions, castes

and gender identities. Nevertheless, the

latter one had been seen to exist and given

importance from the decades of industrial

revolutions that took place worldwide at

different times during late 18th

century.

Hence, salient status, the new additional

term that can be defined here to be an

individual’s position in most cases at most

occasions (Rosenberg et al., 19872;

Calhoun et al., 19943; Stockard, 1997

4). It

implies that there are some determinants

varying on time to label someone with his

status provided that his position is repeated

in most of the cases, and in this quasi-post-

industrialized period of time, socio-

economic and physical tangible matters are

objects to be the determinants of status.

Socio-economic and physical tangible

matters in a society changes when modes

of production, economic sector, usage and

source of resource, design of competition

and axial principle. Underneath, Table 1

depicts it all that how pre-industrial

society, industrial society and post-

2 Rosenberg, Michael, et al. 1987. An Introduction

to sociology. Second Edition. Toronto New York: Methuen 3 Calhoun, Craig, et al. 1994. Sociology. 6th Ed.

New York: McGraw Hill. 4 Stockard, Jean, 1997. Sociology. Discovering

Society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/health/ephti/library/lecture_notes/health_science_students/ln_sociology_final.pdf




industrial society differ from each other

depending on the factors mentioned

earlier.

Table 1: Comparative schema among pre-industrial society, industrial society and post-

industrial society; Source: page 47, Bell, D. 19765.

5 Bell, D. (1976). Welcome to Post-Industrial Society.

Physics Today, February.


As discussed earlier, comparing to this

Table 1, it is found that we are now living

at in a state in between industrial society

and post industrial society, as if some

characteristics of present society and

dependent status assemble the former one

and remaining characteristics assemble

latter one, hence, this study terms the

existing state as ‘quasi-post-industrial

society’, which simply indicates a

transitory period in between twos.

To recall, it is to be noted that the status of

workers is being not voluntarily given by

the capitalists, i.e., owners or

entrepreneurs, private stakeholders; rather

it is being achieved through consecutive

and consistent mix approaches comprising

of revolutionary and non-violent practices.

In additions, later sort of negotiations are

being lunched and being an important

player, government tried to make a win-

win situation by taking lawful and

organized welfare activities. And it is to be

accepted that ultimately, the status of

workers changed in better way with

promising lift in level of living standards,

however, remarkable progress is still

remained to take place.

3. Status of workers in pre-industrial society in brief

The salient features related to workers

conditions at the pre-industrial society

worldwide, especially in England are

expressed below,

i. From 1200 AD to 1600 AD, real

wage in England was completely

determined by the supply of the

labour, neither the efficiency nor

the productivity of labour and risk

in workplace determined that.

Therefore, the political uncertainty

and leisure-work hours trade off

had played key role for supplying

labour. However, at that time,

wages were completely rigid to

increase or decrease (Clark, G,

20056). But, from 1630 AD to 1690

AD, real wages rose near about

50% though population also grew

at modest rate. This peculiar

characteristic revealed that the real

wages at that time was not actually

reflective of any competitive

mechanism or working class’s

wants but was completely gobbled

up by capitalists’ unidirectional

and dominating approaches.

ii. The working environment was

noisy, dusty and private

stakeholders did not look at making

workplace safer or never took steps

6 Clark, G. (2005), “The Condition of the Working

Class in England, 1209-2003”, UC Davis.


to ensure sanitary and

phytosanitary measures. These

issues lead workers regularly to fall

sick, by taking the advantages of it,

capitalists cut off their real wages

further which made workers poorer

further. Even after death, no

insurance claim was accepted or

mitigated.

iii. Along with the establishment of

workhouse following the Poor Law

Act of 1388 and New Poor Law of

1834, from 1300s to 1800s in the

name making poor people better

off, government gave a space to the

capitalist aristocratic class to

exploit workers under domestic

and producing works. They were

deprived of their wages, working

hour- was not even an issue to look

at, and other present day’s existing

benefits that come up with a job or

work were beyond imagination at

that time.

4. Status of workers in quasi-post-industrial society in brief

The major features coined with workers in

quasi-post-industrial society, particularly

in England has been briefed here,

i. From the beginning of industrial

revolution taken place first in

England, it has been observed that,

competitive market started taking

places everywhere and labour

market was not exception to that. It

enabled real wages not be

determined solely by population

growth but it had taken risk of a

particular work, inflation rate of an

economy, interest rate, opportunity

cost, consumer purchasing power

etc., on account too. This matter

transformed the labour market of

England and other following

countries in a qualitative way.

However, capitalists now believe

being convinced by the welfare

economists that ultimately a

worker also belong to the purchaser

group, so that, if workers are not

paid well then they will purchase

less, which will make product

surplus and inventory costs to rise

and capitalists have to incur losses-

this reasoning assisted capitalists to

go for better owner-worker practice

in terms of wage and other

financial facilities with a view to

growing together, which has been

proved accurate for developing


country sectors, industries and

economy at a stable rate.

ii. As per the definition, quasi-post-

industrial society passes through a

transitory period; it means that this

period will require some tools to

drive it forward for being post-

industrial society. That is why

trade union has been formed

worldwide. International

organizations, federations,

foundations, ministries have been

established to ensure labour rights.

Namely, some of them are,

International Labour Organization

(ILO), Fair-wear Foundation,

Ministry of Labour and

Employment, Government of

Bangladesh, etc. This phenomenon

indicates that labour welfare is not

part of charity now, but it’s a

procedure of organized rightful

movement worldwide, which is a

major transformation.

iii. ILO and other cooperative partners

are working worldwide to ensure

work safety and many more things

and recently it has been revised

with a line to United Nation’s

approaches toward attaining 17

goals declared in the manifesto

titled “Sustainable Development

Goals”. These 17 goals are as

follows (see Figure 1),

Figure 1: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Source: UN, 20167.

7 United Nations (UN), 2016. Retrieved from, http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-

development-goals/ [13 April, 2016]

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/


ILO has also set up goals to be reached by

2030 AD- some of those are below,

a. Decent work for all. It is believed

that to achieve this goal, people-

centered policies which reduce

inequalities must be implemented.

These include social protection

measures, wage policies,

strengthened labour inspection,

increased female labour market

participation and protecting

collective bargaining (ILO, 20168).

b. Youth employment rate should be

increased and to ensure this, skill

gap should be identified and filled

up through proper capacity

building process (ILO, 2016).

c. Working conditions should be

improved and for that access to

financial sector should be eased

(ILO, 2016).

d. Safety and health at workplace

should be attained for must. To

have this, two things are must do,

i.e., firstly, urgent action is needed

to build a global culture of

prevention that respects the right to

a safe and healthy working

8 International Labour Organization (ILO), 2016.

Decent Work and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Retrieved from, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436923.pdf [13 April, 2016]

environment and ensures that both

employers and workers know their

rights and responsibilities.

Secondly, implementation of ILO

fundamental rights and standards at

the national level is crucial.

Vulnerable groups, including

migrants, require particular

attention to ensure their rights are

protected and working conditions

improved (ILO, 2016).

e. Social protection of workers should

be ensured, where government

should play leading role (ILO,

2016).

f. Inequality among different classes

across countries should be lowered

down. For reducing inequality,

wage stagnation must be addressed

as a matter of fairness and of

economic growth (ILO, 2016).

These measures have heightened up status

of workers as if from the definition of

salient status, we have learnt that

individual’s position in most cases at most

occasions define one’s identity thus his

status to be regarded. It is evident that,

above measures will surely change the

socio-economic condition of the workers

further and by 2030 what we will have

regarding status of workers should not be

appropriate to be termed as outcomes of

quasi-post-industrialization but full-

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436923.pdf





fledged outcomes of completely post-

industrial era.

5. Change in the status of workers in Bangladesh Context

Surely, pre-industrialization, quasi-post-

industrialization and post industrialization-

these three stages of industrialization have

led three different types of status provided

toward workers, worldwide. However, to

understand the change in status of workers

within the context of Bangladesh requires

in-depth comparative analyses between

before and after Rana Plaza collapse as if,

before Rana Plaza collapse, from

government to private stakeholders, all

were reluctant about workplace safety,

building codes, maintaining minimum

surviving wage and many other matters

related to the scopes and opportunities

coined with decency, sanitary,

phytosanitary, wage-inequality, maternal

leaves. But, after Rana Plaza collapse, it

has come under the light of government of

Bangladesh, non-governmental local and

international development partners, related

industrial associations and workers group

that, lawful collective bargaining

approaches should be initiated, promoted

and emphasized for formulating and

ensuring above mentioned factors, i.e.,

from minimum wage law (see Figure 2)

set up to health security, etc.

Figure 2: Minimum wage law 2013; Source: Sarkar, L. C., 20149.

9 Sarkar, L. C., 2014. After Rana Plaza. Retrieved from, http://www.bkmea.com/images/media/iART-

pdf/Rana%20Plaza.pdf [13 April, 2016]

Class Wage-Year

2006 in BDT

Wage-Year

2010 in BDT

Wage-Year

2013 in BDT

Rate of Increase

in 2013 over 2010

in %

Rate of Increase

in 2013 over 2006

in %

Grade 1 5140 9300 13000 39.78494624 152.9182879

Grade 2 3840 7200 10900 51.38888889 183.8541667

Grade 3 2449 4120 6850 66.26213592 179.7060024

Grade 4 2250 3763 6420 70.608557 185.3333333

Grade 5 2046 3455 6042 74.87698987 195.3079179

http://www.bkmea.com/images/media/iART-pdf/Rana%20Plaza.pdf

http://www.bkmea.com/images/media/iART-pdf/Rana%20Plaza.pdf


As if working conditions changed steadily and minimum wage by nights, workers of

Bangladesh are now enjoying better facilities here. Sensible business associations like

Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters (BKMEA) are working day and night to

avoid any unexpected incident with the cooperation of government bodies of the country. To

be specific, BKMEA represents 2000 knitwear factories, for BKMEA’s thorough supervision

and monitoring system, from 1990s to present days, not a single unexpected incident took

place related to factory collapse. As if BKMEA’s approach can be taken as exemplary that is

why, it’s supervising and monitoring activities should be replicated by other associations to

ensure better status of workers. Table 2 may show it well how the progress left impact on

overall Ready-made garments (RMG) sector,

Table 2: Better working conditions existing in RMG sector now; Source: ACD, 201510

.

10

Asian Center for Development (ACD), 2015. Garment Workers in Bangladesh: Social Impact of the Garment Industry.

Grade 6 1851 3210 5678 76.8847352 206.7531064

Grade 7 1662 3000 5300 76.66666667 218.8929001

Apprentice 1200 2500 4180 67.2 248.3333333


Table 2 shows that nearly 2% of the factories do not have fire exits, about 8.2% keep their

exits locked and nearly 17.3%of the factories reported to have blocked exits. About 94% of

the factories provided training to their workers about emergency exit procedures.

Interestingly, while 86.3% of the factories have cafeterias for workers, only 51.3% of

workers reported to have used them. Similarly, nearly 81.2% of the factories (reported by

workers) have facilities for childcare but only 14% of working parents in the RMG sector

have used them (ACD, 2015).

To monitor and regulate the changing status of workers, Bangladesh govt. initiated a range of

policies, acts, rules and laws, which are as follows (MoLE, 201611

),

i. Bangladesh Labour Rules 2015

ii. Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation (Amendment) Rules, 2015

iii. Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation Rule 2010

iv. National Integrity Strategy

v. Labour Welfare Foundation Acts 2006

vi. Bangladesh Labour Act 2006

vii. Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation (Amendment) Act 2013

viii. Bangladesh Labour Law (Ammendment) 2013

ix. Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy, 2015

x. National Occupational Health and Safety Policy 2013

xi. Child Labour Elimination Policy

xii. Bangladesh Labour Policy 2012

Recently Bangladesh govt. has prepared draft policies related to subcontracting and business

associations, which will tight up the situation to violate labour rules, policies, acts, laws and

will continue upholding labour welfare.

11

Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE), 2016. Retrieved from, http://goo.gl/3Cqx9S, http://goo.gl/slxnaI, http://goo.gl/0uR7Sf [20 April, 2016]

http://goo.gl/3Cqx9S

http://goo.gl/slxnaI

http://goo.gl/0uR7Sf


6. Recommendations

Recommendations are as below, which are

believed to serve the purpose- ensuring

status of workers to increase by 2021 and

2030 respectively.

i. Domestic Workers Protection and

Welfare Policy, 2015 is still subject

to be implemented and it is seen

that, still they are the most

oppressed one comparing to other

types of workers’ classes, as if

industrial workers are somehow

monitored under national tripartite

plan and in Ready-made garments

sector, factories are also covered

by ACCORD and ALLIANCE,

therefore, lesser chance to make

workers deprived of, but as if

domestic workers are still under no

umbrella, they are exposed to be

victims of tortures, extremely low

wage and basic human rights

violation.

ii. In industries, though now workers

are occupying better status and

average wage (i.e., Bangladeshi

Taka 6820) offered in RMG sector

is above minimum wage

(Bangladeshi Taka 5300) by

28.68% during 2014, but it has

been dug out that in terms of

compliance issues there are still

many things to be done. Apart from

this, there are other industries and

factories except export oriented

RMG, but surprisingly government

has still not lunched any fruitful

mechanism and initiative to

explore and transform those. This

study sees it as a serious threat to

the wellbeing of workers thus

status of them and recommends

Bangladesh government to defocus

the present focus and to go for

working with workers of other

manufacturing industries, i.e., ship-

breaking industry, ceramic

manufacturing industry, cement

manufacturing industry, real-estate

developing industry, etc, as if

repeatedly news media has

reported miserable conditions at.

iii. Phytosanitary and sanitary issues

are still yet to ensure in industries

which are directly linked to the

health condition of the workers that

has to be looked at with proper

concentration.

iv. It has been seen that, though

maternal leave and other kinds of

leaves are to be given to the

workers on the need basis, but

private stakeholders hesitate or


sometimes not reward their

workers with it, which is

completely unexpected- hence, it

should be supervised by the

government to keep the status of

workers nourished.

v. UN’s SDGs and ILO’s objectives

in a line with those should be

manifested and implemented as

early as possible in a co-integrated

way; otherwise, workers status will

remain in a stagnant position which

happened in England from 1200s to

1600s.

changes in the status of workers: bangladesh context in brief

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