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What is the condition of labor in Bangladesh today especially in the garment industry? Consider
wages ,working conditions, hours worked, genders of workers, representation by unions.

Bangladesh was very well known in the world for it disastrous policies & culture for the garment and
textile workers as it involved every possible human rights violations i.e. sexual harassment, lower wage,
child labor and non-availability of safety measures for the working labor. However, on the positive it can
be concluded that the country has gained much development in the labor rights section of textile and
garments sector. This involved the increment in wages conditions, unions and hours worked in the sector

Firstly, the legal minimum wages of the worker in garment sector is nearly around 8000 taka ($73.85)
monthly. This wage has been improved by 2700takas alone in December in order to provide betterment
for the garment workers. If comparison is made within the minimum wage offered to the customers in
2010 (i.e. 3000 takas) with 2019 (i.e. 8000 taka) then it can be concluded that Bangladesh has drastically
increased their wages by countering the negative effect of wage issue overall.

After the collapse of a garment factory in 2013 with hundreds of deaths and injuries raised an
international concern for the betterment of working conditions in Bangladesh for the textile and garment
industrial workers. There are total 4500 garment factories in Bangladesh and being the second largest
exporter of garment worldwide after China. Till now vast improvements have been carried out i.e. the
placement of fire doors, sprinkle system and alarms. There have been foreign inspections carried out for
the working conditions in the country causing a positive surge in working conditions. Additionally, the
working hours for the workers have been legally announced to be 40 hours per week.

The condition of Gender issues and Child labor has been on the rise. As the survey by BBC said 80% of
the women working in the garment industry have faced some sort of sexual harassment while working.
There are total 4.1 million workers in the Garment industry with 80% of the workers being women.
Addition to this 1Million children has been accounted to be working within the garment industry causing
a concern for child labor.

The garment industry is politically powerful in Bangladesh which arises issues of poor enforcement of
labor laws resulting in the decoration to working conditions. This political involvement causes wage
thefts, sexual harassment, child labor, lack of safety precautions and unfair treatments. For this purpose
the Unions and labor associations were made but in addition to the political involvement of garments
industry these unions are widely rejected by the government. As of 1031 unions from 2010 to 2018 the
government rejected 46% of the unions in order to prevent the labor from their rights.
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Vietnam considers its economic system “market socialism” that emphasizes the importance of
social welfare. How does Vietnam fare on various social indicators and social spending? How does
this compare with other countries?

The reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975 brought with itself a lot of issues relating to
manufacturing, supply and demand imbalance, high inflation, inefficiency in distribution and huge debt
issue. In order to counter these issues Vietnam termed to implement “Doi Moi reforms” (1986) in lieu of
market socialism in to the economy. This involved the increment of role of market forces into the
economy by giving autonomy/private ownership to SME’s. This process included the execution of
reforming the economy to socially oriented market economy from command economy. Form late 1980’s
till now Vietnam has achieved a drastic improvement in its social indicators by implementing the market
socialism into the economy. These indicators include the FDI ownership of local firms, decollectivization
of agriculture and providing rural people with land, SOE’s limitation of powers, decontrolled prices and
finance etc.

The provision of land to rural public in order to maximize the efficiency; however still state owned was
the strategy implemented as per China. This imposed a relief on restrictions on agriculture still
implementing the market socialism. The exports of agriculture surged to 10x since 2000 with this strategy
alongside providing employment opportunities to general public.

Allowing the FDI for owning the SME’s in the country termed to bring major manufacturing companies
to the market i.e. Samsung, Intel, Nike and Canon etc. The manufacturing exports of the country termed
40% of the total GDP positively effecting the BOP of the economy. Unlike Bangladesh Vietnam provided
the foreign firms to manufacture by companies as subsidiaries instead of subletting to contractors.

The wages of the country has doubled since 2007 and a25% increase is observed in the last 6 years due to
the involvement of FDI owning SME’s and agriculture land provision. As 42% is employed by
agriculture, 25% by manufacturing and 33% by services industry. Only 2.2% unemployment has been
observed in the country.

The Union has been encouraged by the government but under socialist ideals; however the labor is
majorly part of Vietnam General Confederation of Labor which provides labor with educational
opportunities, implementation of labor rights and laws. Unlike Malaysia where the Labor Unions are not
welcomed as seen as a violation of human right. But with the market socialism and socialist ideology
unions the labor conditions in Vietnam have drastically improved in the country. The 48h work week with
8h per day and 5% increase in the pay with addition of new skills by the labor along with only 6%
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poverty rate, 97% youth literacy, pensions and increased women role in the industry has prided a positive
image to the International community in comparison to other countries i.e. Malaysia and Bangladesh.