1.

” Violation of social compliance of these has caused already enormous loss

to RMG Sector during last few years..”
As it is an industry based problem, proper monitoring needs to be ensured and
inspections should take place often. We need to provide the relevant training on quality
management and quality maintenance to the Alliance Accord members.

Pros of the initiative:

 Proper quality management of the production unit and administrative unit
simultaneously.
 Work environment development and enrichment up to the suitability range for
healthy working.
 Ergonomic benefits ensured and job-satisfaction enhanced to induce further better
performances.
 Regular inspections can put the factories used to shift systems while observed, to
be in regularity of good system.

Cons of the initiative:

 Being a large scale initiative, it can’t be executed on a short notice or done in a
short time.
 A large budget allocation is needed for execution.
 Government interference is needed which can often have bias results from its
implication.

2.” Fire Accident, in few cases fire accidents in factories caused loss of lives
hundreds of workers and officers, burning out of huge quantities of finished
goods, raw materials & factory sheds etc.”
From multiple instances mentioned in the given case we can easily understand how
malfunctioning are the labor rights in our country. Maybe there are little changes in
compensation or labor union policies, still the labor welfare is ignored in the eyes of the
administration. Training needs to be given to everyone involved with the factory to learn
fire extinguishing and other safety methods.
Pros of the initiative:
 Basic safety methods education can significantly decrease the number of
casualties among workers.
 Mental preparation for facing emergencies will remain as such trainings will be
given frequently to the people working in the factory.
 In some cases the accidents can even be avoided depending on the depth of
understanding of the accidents among workers.
 Will help create a sense of safety surrounding the workplace in the minds of the
working community.

Cons of the initiative:

 Time-consuming procedures are maintained to demonstrate safety measures to a
large number of audience.
 Feedback from the learners can not be accumulated due to large number of
participants.
 Sometimes, the perception of fire extinguishers being a costly commodity can
hinder the learning process for the workers as they are mentally afraid of ruining
anything expensive.

3.” Longer Working hours, non-payment of compensation etc. are often used
as a tool of labor exploitation by the factory owners. ”
There is an observed lack of knowledge or self-awareness among the labors. And this can
be dealt by providing with training sessions to the workers on their rights in the
workplace.

Pros of the initiative:

 A person who is informed of his or her rights in the workplace is less likely to
take irrational steps.
 More constructive work can be done by the mutual agreement of both the
administration and working category.
 Self-awareness will bring on more self-efficacy and people will be more focused
on the performance.
  If the rights are explicitly stated by the organization there is little to no scope left
for personal discretion over company decisions or any sort of biasness coming
from the authority.

Cons of the initiative:

 While self-awareness is important, there is a risk of exploiting the rights given by
the authority by some privileged groups (mostly political, keeping the
Bangladeshi context in mind)
 Informing rights in mass congregation can be done but the real impartment is
unmeasurable.
 Training on such topics need to be conducted by subject matter experts or SMEs,
who might not be available at the moment.

4. “With over one and a half million women workers employed in semi-
skilled and skilled jobs producing clothing for exports, the development of
the apparel export industry has had far-reaching implications for the society
and economy of Bangladesh.”
The problem is found by conducting the needs assessment. We can see the lacking from
personnel analysis, which further details into lack of basic skills in the available pool of
candidates to work in the garments industry. Upskilling training programs can be held for
the new comers.

Pros of the initiative:

 Proper knowledge on the job responsibilities before fully engaging in the job
work.
 Depending on various tasks, the accuracy level for training can be moderated to
further help the company in the long run.
 Well-trained laborers are aupposed to have higher efficiency than an unskilled
employee.
 The amount of wastage or scratch will go down over the time as an impact of the
trained employee engagement.

Cons of the initiative:

  There might be some sort of data distortion associated with the skill levels of the
employees, as not everyone is going to feel comfortable admitting to lack of skills
while going through a job interview.
 Opportunity to learn might be misused as an opportunity to avoid work loads or
responsibilities in the initial time by forging abilities.
 These upskilling training procedures will ultimately increase the total employee
cost for the company.

5. “Safety need for the worker is mandatory to maintain in all the

organization. But without the facility of this necessary product a lot of
accident is occur incurred every year in most of the company..”
This part mainly reflects on the aftermath of any accident that takes place in a garments
factory. These can be kept under control but can never be eradicated as accidents are
always sudden mishaps. The ways it can be minimized included developmental programs
taken under the Human Resources Management Department.

Pros of the initiative:

 The Human Resources Management department coordinates with both
administrative and working wings to come to agreeable conditions for them along
with imparting accurate knowledge on situational dealings.
 With the accident minimization, working hours or productive working time will
be boosted and be functional.
 The prevention methods strengthening by the company will help everyone
understand the importance of it and people will maintain that on a personal level
too.
 With increasing beneficieries in the organization, the company will bear good
reputation as an employer to attract better pool of skilled candidates into their
realm.

Cons of the initiative:

 As these trainings or discussions are a time-consuming process, these will take up
a chunk of the productive hours for the company.
 Even if the company is more focused in safety measures, sometimes the
employees can grow ignorant of it due to lack of knowledge.
  The departmental focus can be distorted depending on the goal of the particular
working group of people.

6. “The garments sector contains many hazards and risks to workers, ranging
from exposure to noise and dangerous substances, to manual handling and
working with dangerous machinery.”
The working conditions for Bangladeshi garments factory workers are often poor due to
the exposure to harmful things. In such conditions, the production planning and control
department should be concerned with the training for proper planning in production and
sketching the procedures correctly.

Pros of the initiative:

 If the production planning is done efficiently by keeping the hazardous substances
out of the common working space, it would decrease the long-lasting impact on
the health of workers.
 If proper automation is demonstrated to the workers and gradually implemented,
there will be lower chances to have extreme conditions in the accidents and
reduced workload.
 Managing the noise produced during the production is also necessary for
improving the working environment for the workers.
 Contingency planning will help evaluating multiple ways to accomplish a task
and go for the most viable or sustainable method of completion for the work
procedure.

Cons of the initiative:

 The lack of basic knowledge to operate the complex machineries will demotivate
the workers to be working with the help of those machines even if instructed by
the trainer.
 Avoiding noise pollution needs noise cancelling technology, which isn’t very
flourishing in Bangladesh.
 With the amount of automation increase, there will be a decline in the requirement
of labor force.
7.” Each processing stage — from the production of materials to the
manufacturing, finishing, coloring and packaging pose risks for workers, and
some of these are particularly dangerous for women‘s health.”
Here comes one of the most sensitive issues regarding our Ready Made Garments sector.
The exploitation of women in every possible arena. These issues need to be
collaboratively addressed by training programs held by Production Department and
Human Resource Management Department.

Pros of the initiative:

 Processing methods will be standardized keeping the health conditions for women
in mind.
 Dangerous substance uses will decline and will be handled with more
consciousness in tolerable limits.
 Exploitation of women will decrease by a greater extent as they will be well-
informed of the hazardous effects of their current tasks.
 The possible scopes for a machine to complete the task instead of a human to
avoid health hazards will take place and ensure better health conditions of the
women workers.

Cons:
 The authority or management might make the excuse of spending on machines for
certain jobs to reduce the already low-paid wages for the female workers in the
industry.
 Research needs to be conducted on these activities to accurately mark the
hazardous ones which will take time.
 Depending on the factory capacity, the introduction of machines might be
hindered.

8. “The industry is characterized by low cost, fast production relying on

cheap labor to compete with its competitors.”
From this statement we can clearly see where the problem lies in this apparently
profitable economic sector. By depriving a class of hard-working people and offering
unfair wages, a company attains its competitive advantage and thus sustains in the
competition. Such conditions can be improved by providing training to the workers on
global standards for work and a reasonable correlation to the current Bangladeshi
situation.

Pros of the initiative:

 As much as we understand the fact that Bangladeshi companies can’t suddenly go
from very little amount of wages to the standard compensating scheme of Europe.
But, a little improvement might be made considering the possible range of
increment.
 For reducing the cost, often cubicle like work stations are built for the workers
where large number of people work for long hours in a suffocating condition. This
can be reduced by increasing the workspace or reducing the work hours per
worker.
Cons of the initiative:
 Most of the companies may find it very unnecessary to increase labor costs during
this recessionary period.
 As highest profit is expected, the space increase or time decrease can’t be a
sustainable idea for some employers.

9. “Fire accidents in industries are created by unplanned work environment,

disorganized workers, electric short circuit, faulty electrical wiring, smoking
materials, boiler explosion, kitchen stove and carelessness, fire from existing
structure, poor building design and mostly due to the lack of concern of
industry-owners.”
The series of sentences mentioned above illustrates the reasons for fire accidents in the
garments factories of Bangladesh. As this is a very technical issue. This should go in the
hands of the Industrial Engineering Department and the training given to them for further
improvement in given sectors.

Pros of the initiative:

 The faulty lines or electric instruments might be diagnosed and substituted
accordingly.
  As these trainings will be costly, the owners must take more interest in the
application of the training.
 Regular inspections of the frequently used instruments will help the engineering
department keep a better record of ongoing issues for the company and a better
preparation for further improvements.
Cons of the initiative:
 Often times the tracking of all machineries isn’t possible due to round the clock
activities of the garments factories.
 There isn’t enough budget allocation for the maintenance of the already in
function instruments.


10. “ In garment industries, normally maternity leave is for 30 days and

maximum 60 days. But Govt. Rule of maternity leave is 04 (Four) months
with pay.”
One of the inhuman practices found in the Bangladeshi Garments industry is the problem
regarding maternal facilities. Keeping the fact in mind that most workers of this industry
are women, they should have implemented better practices for maternal leave. But in
reality we can see the contrary. As this is a very sensitive and important issue, this needs
to be tackled by the Human Resources Management Departments’ Strategic Training.

Pros of the initiative:

 If the right amount of leave is ensured, the maternal health issues of the workers
will go down.
 Facilitating the maternal benefits will improve the imaging of the company as an
employer.
 Given such beneficial scopes, people are expected to have better job satisfaction
levels.

Cons of the initiative:

 Such long leaves might decrease the motivation to work in some women.
 The fully-paid leave scheme can’t be implemented due to the reluctance of the
authority.
11. “Only one exit way was tazreen fashion, but it is not enough for 1200
workers.”
The poor infrastructure of the buildings that garments factory workers work in is a long
talked about issue. The need for it to be addressed keeps no doubts. This needs to be dealt
by the Industrial Engineering Department training.

Pros of the initiative:

 Fire exit renovations can dramatically reduce the number of deaths in a fire
accident.
 Adequate number of fire exits will be in attention of the administration and will
be constructed in due time to combat any emergency.
 Fire alarms need to installed and their usage needs to be demonstrated to everyone
in the factory for them to prevent the seriousness of the case.

Cons of the initiative:

 Installations or constructions are resource intensive actions which might not fit
the agenda of all administrative bodies.
 A long time is needed to fix infrastructural issues as the production procedures
can’t be totally stopped for this reason.

12 ”Maximum workers are trying overtime work every day but their
discriminated the earnings priority.”
A malpractice observed commonly among Bangladeshi garments factory workers is the
over-time working. Which ultimately disrupts the normal balanced life of the worker and
also doesn’t come with an impressive amount of pay. This can be handled by the Human
Resource Management Department’s Training on compensation.

Pros of the initiative:

 By applying better compensation schemes we can attain a wage leadership facility
in the industry to have better reputation as employers.
 A better paid employee is more likely to have more enthusiasm for working in his
or her tasks.
  When employees will have a clear understanding of how they are compensated
according to their dedicated work hours, they will gradually be more motivated to
work accordingly.
 Keeping a sealing to the overtime limit per week, the company can promote both
work efficiency and lifestyle improvement.

Cons of the initiative:

 If a sealing is to be maintained, the company needs to reach an optimum level
between the extra work hours needed for them and adequate amount of free time
needed by the employees, which is a very lengthy process for any company to
comply with.
 Sometimes, the employees might be reluctant to accommodate the new changes as
it is not always well-received by them to have a cut in working time and induces
negative sentiments.

13. .” The industrial unit set the all machine is very near one to one more, it
is one of the main reason for an increase the injury when create the disaster.”
This again emphasizes on the infrastructural error in the garments factories in
Bangladesh. The safe level of three feet gap between two machines is never maintained
in these factories where people mostly work in congested cubicle like spaces. This should
be done by training the Industrial Engineering Department about the appropriate
positioning of equipment in a garments factory.

Pros of the initiative:

 The standard three feet gap maintenance will help the employees to have adequate
space to work freely in their respective stations for elongated periods without
suffocation.
 The lessened congestion will holistically improve the working environment for all
the employees.
 In case of an accident or hazard, there will be lesser chances to get hurt as there
will be adequate space.
Cons of the initiative:
 Changing the configuration can not be always pursued as setting up the equipment
is a complicated process.
 The re-structuring of the machineries is not always feasible, specially given the
fact that Bangladesh is a over-populated country and there is a consistent scarcity
of land.

14. “There were minimum two thousand worker were worked together on
3rd floor where she worked and there was only six toilet for male and six for
female and they didn‘t used ‗mask‘ which was fixed.”
Through the given passage, both congestion and poor health conditions are indicated.
Such working environment issues are good enough to cause long-term damage to a
person even if no accidents take place. These issues should be tackled by the
Administration with the help of training the Industrial Engineering Department and
Human Resources Management Department.

Pros of the initiative:

 If the congestion is avoided, the employees will have a better workplace to be
engaging in.
 The increased sanitation facilities will help the employees’ personal sanitation
practices and avoid numerous diseases.
 Using masks and promoting the use of it everywhere will help avoid a bulk of
complexities arisen by the exposure to harmful chemicals and substances,
specially in dyeing processes.

Cons of the initiative:

 Maintaining the practice of using masks is more of a personal initiative than a
training procedure.
 The budget needed for such improvements is high and might not always get
realized in a short term.

15.” In Rana Plaza, every in level generator was placed illegally.”

Here comes another big issue regarding the infrastructure, mismanagement of the
machineries. The right placement is even not known or not implemented. Solving this
will require a proper training given to the Industrial Engineering Department.

Pros of the initiative:

 The generators should strictly be placed in the ground floor, and under no
circumstances it should change.
 The fragile infrastructure of the buildings here might not always be supportive of
the heavier machineries in upper stories, so keeping them in the right place will
potentially increase the usable life of the building.
 In cases of emergencies, the escape will be easier and possibilities of deaths will
be significantly less.

Cons of the initiative:

 There is a tendency to not installing machineries in a planned way, so there might
be no room left for more generators when needed in extended portions.
 The overseeing of such projects often get delayed unexplained, and these
elongated waiting times make people forget the importance of the activity.

16.” He(Abdur Razzak) didn‘t receive any help without one- month salary.”
From the example of Abdur Razzak, we can get an idea of the poor compensation
strategy implemented in the garments industry. The combination of timeline and amount
of compensation makes it tougher for the workers to exist. For improving the current
picture, the compensation planning training should be given to the Human resources
Management Department of the company.

Pros of the initiative:

 Designing a compensation scheme according to the severity of the damage caused
by work accidents will be a beneficial one. In this way, the people who can get re-
employed can return to the workplace and the people who are paralyzed for
lifetime will get compensated as the liability expression of the company at a
smaller rate than actual salary for lifetime.
  The disbursement strategy also needs to be reformulated. As there is a tendency to
give one-time lump sum compensation to anyone affected by the tragedy, which
is not always helpful. The installment system needs to be introduced for
disbursing the compensation to the affected laborers.
 For avoiding any issues, the compensation scheme should be kept in black and
white for general convenience and transparency.
 For getting compensation, proper documentation needs to be provided in order to
analyze the seriousness of the issue and provide support to the affected person
accordingly.

Cons of the initiative:

 Some people might take the opportunity to retain compensation money for longer
time than needed instead of working.
 It might appear a bit uninteresting to the employers at first glance to compensate a
worker for long-term in smaller installments compared to the one-time large
payments.
 Such compensation procedures can be and should be maintained by the large
corporations, but sometimes it might appear to be difficult for smaller companies
to keep up with.