State and the Legal System Fails Bangladesh Workers Time and Time Again

In August of 2014, when I arrived in Dhaka, robust mobilization was underway by garment factory workers of Tuba Group.  Delwar Hossain, the owner of Tuba Group was the same owner of Tazreen Fashions where a fire resulted in the death of at least 112 workers in November 2012. At that time, I met with and interviewed workers on their struggle for wages due which I wrote about in an earlier post. I argued that the Tuba Group workers struggle revealed a need for a sustained labor movement in Bangladesh.  What was promising of the Tuba Group workers mobilization was that it brought together a cross section of worker organizations, civil society activists and academics to lend their support to workers demand.  Yet again, we see the activism of garment workers from Swan Garments and Swan Jeans.  In April 2015, the owner of Swan Garments and Swan Jeans reportedly abruptly closed the factory without paying workers their due wages. Since then, workers have not received their pay and have been mobilizing to pressure the government to either reopen the factory or pay their owed wages.

Bangladesh’s labor movement has seen these episodic demands for wages in the garment sector, and often, these sporadic protests are seen as a failures of a movement to take hold.  The sustainability of a labor movement in an environment of political and economic repression is challenging.  Analyzing these mobilization efforts solely based on the outcomes of the demands is narrow, and fails to appreciate organizing power of workers.   That workers still flood the streets demanding what they are legally entitled to knowing the injurious consequences of protesting suggests an intuitive demand for justice undergirds the movement.   Each of these mobilization efforts helps to organize workers, and the key is to connect and build on each of these efforts strategically.  Of course, whether these mobilizing moments build up to a larger movement in the garment industry remains to be seen.

What is obscured in this oft asked question that focuses on whether workers are successfully organizing is how consistently the state, law and legal system has unequivocally failed its citizenry. There is no doubt about the state’s failure here, and consequently, the failure of the legal system. Workers are of course not simply cogs in an industrial wheel, they are a significant and sizeable part of the citizenry to which the Government of Bangladesh owe a constitutional duty to protect and provide for their economic welfare. Yet, time and time again, the government shirks its constitutional obligation towards workers. Culturally egregious is that in both in the case of Tuba workers, and now in Swan, the denial of legally owed wages is happening as the country approaches the religious holiday of Eid.  I highlight this because when we speak about legal compliance, it is mostly spoken as a benign neglect of the law.  However, the state’s action here displays an outright disdain for poor people and their basic demand for dignity.  Stories of worker unable to purchase a new dress for their children for Eid should pull at your conscience or heart strings, yet, consistently, fall on deaf ears.

The protests also reveal the limitations in effectiveness of the safety programs like the Accord and Alliance in yielding compliance with labor rights. Swan Garments and Swan Jeans are listed among the group of factories covered and assessed by the Accord.   In 2012, it was reported to have had a fire just two days after the fatal fire at Tazreen Fashions. Given all the resources that go into factory inspections to create a safe workplace, the reoccurring problems that workers face is payment of their legally owed wages.  The efforts to create safe workplaces and the mobilization for wages often appear to be on parallel tracks.  Workers have not been actively engaged in the safety initiatives, although it impacts their lives.   However, actions for mobilization show an active and courageous workforce often being assaulted beaten by the police.  How is it that two key issues for workers which should be part of a set of demands are bifurcated.

Moreover, as Bangladesh courts foreign investors, the case of Swan Garments where the Hong Kong national owner allegedly fled the country reveals the ways in which workers are often left vulnerable in these investment deals. It is not enough to require owners to abide by existing laws, but the Government of Bangladesh must create legal mechanisms to protect workers when violations occur.  For example, the Government can require foreign investors to set aside labor costs in escrow in event of closures. So, when the investor flees, the worker can at least obtain their wages from the funds that were previously set aside.  These and other creative solutions are necessary because the industry can not function if each time the owner fails to pay its workers, the workers have no choice but to resort to the streets.   Such labor-management discord on basic matters like wages reflects poor management practices.  I have consistently argued and stated that garment owners need to understand good labor-management practices makes good business sense.

Swan workers continue to have sit-in in front of the Press Club since July 12 leading up to Eid holidays.

What we are left with are laws that are not enforced, owners allowed to continue violating laws without impunity and mismatched policy solutions that do not speak to the needs of workers. It is time to focus our attention on ensuring workers get what they are legally entitled to.