Worker Empowerment
In 2010 - 2011, Primark worked with NUK* – a local non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh - to tackle some of the root causes of poor working conditions in factories in Bangladesh. Our benchmark assessments conducted in 2009 showed that despite audits, almost 80 percent of factories in our sample did not have adequate management systems or the knowledge to be able to meet the rigorous ethical codes of conduct set out by Primark and other international retailers. Ninety percent of workers were unaware of their rights, legal benefits, and responsibilities as employees.
We implemented the programme in 16 factories in key manufacturing hubs in Dhaka, Savar Gazipur and Narayanganj, training over 500 factory managers, and 1100 factory workers.
The programme is featured on the ETI website as an example of retailer best practice in improving workplace conditions.
Training programmes for managers and workers
Our management training programme included:
- International trading and the growth of the ready-made-garment industry in Bangladesh
- Environmental, legal and social compliance
- Codes of conduct, and the ILO conventions
- Management and human resource systems and documentation
- Worker welfare activities and worker participatory committees.
Our worker training programme included
- Legal wages and benefits
- How to calculate wages and overtime payments
- Occupational health and safety
- First aid and fire safety, and individual responsibility
- Worker participatory committees
Establishing systems of compliance and raising awareness
At the end of the project, all the participating factories had established management teams and systems responsible for ensuring workplace compliance, including dedicated ethical trade compliance officers. These teams, which covered human resources, occupational health and safety, were also trained in how to deliver training for workers, and how to conduct internal risk assessments.
Workers commented that they were very pleased to have been given the opportunity to learn about their basic rights and understand why compliance is important. One worker said: “The training provides us with information about salary, benefits and working hours as well as advice on personal hygiene and how to work safely.”
One manager said: “Thanks to NUK we will no longer be worried about audits as we all now have a much better understanding of compliance standards and are confident we have the right systems in place to manage these issues”.
Establishing worker participation committees
Despite initial reservations by some factories, worker participation committees were established.
As an example of the impact a worker committee can make, one of the new Worker’s Participation Committee, proved effective in helping to build relationships between the management and the workers and was instrumental in driving improvements. NUK provided the factory with guidance on how to run the Committee democratically and gave special training sessions to workers and management on how best to communicate their requests to each other. It was through this group and through the newly appointed female welfare officer that the workers successfully negotiated overtime payments and reduced excessive overtime and holiday working. Following the training sessions, workers also successfully campaigned to receive clear explanation of wages and benefits, appointment letters and detailed pay slips.
It was highly notable that during the worker strikes in 2010, none of the factories engaged in the programme suffered as a result, and there was no vandalism.
Providing child care and medical facilities
At the beginning of the programme, the majority of participating factories lacked a childcare room / crèche or a medical room, despite legal requirements in place in Bangladesh. Of those that did, most were poorly staffed and / or under resourced. By the end of the project, all factories had fully staffed, equipped crèches and medical rooms.
The root causes of delivering good workplaces
The ready-made-garment sector in Bangladesh has expanded greatly over the past five years. Whilst exports have grown, there remains a lack of general understanding and awareness of compliance, and how to meet the demands of retailers. Despite willingness by factory managers to learn and apply good systems, some factory owners remain reluctant as not all their retail customers insist on adherence to a code of compliance; and for those that do, standards and codes vary. Collaboration and coordination between brands is growing each year, and initiatives such as the Levi Strauss brand collaboration group and ILO-IFC Better Work have led the way in demonstrating collaboration is an effective tool which can be implemented to reduce audits and confusion over multiple codes of conduct. However, more retailers need to be insisting on code adherence for factories producing their products, and join collaborative efforts.
The costs of compliance can pay for themselves over time, but the initial costs can be off-putting. Factory managers cited fire safety equipment, structural changes and reorganisation of production facilities as the main costs incurred. Structural changes in particular are a significant obstacle – a large number of factories in Bangladesh are either rented and / or were not purpose-built manufacturing sites therefore making structural changes to ensure fire safety compliance can be difficult.
*Our partner, NUK
Primark has worked with NUK (Nari Uddug Kendra – The Centre for Women’s Initiatives) in Bangladesh since 2007. The organisation works to raise gender awareness and promote women’s rights. Our partnership with NUK has helped us to identify and address key issues around gender equality, opportunities for garment workers’ growth and career enhancement, and training needs.
The organisation was founded by Mrs Mashuda Shefali, who describes her personal experiences and strong commitment to empowering the women of Bangladesh below.
What were you doing before you set up NUK in Bangladesh?
I spent 12 years working for the government of Bangladesh in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. After that, I worked for local NGOs, mainly in the area of technical assessment for rural development with a focus on women. I spent a few years with the Canadian Development Agency in Dhaka and I also worked as the Country Coordinator for the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, bringing together my experience working in government and my strong ties to local Bengali NGOs. The unifying theme in all my work has been women’s development.
What drove you to focus on women’s development?
My interest started from a young age. I was brought up in a rural area in Bangladesh, born into one of the wealthier “landlord” families. As a child I watched how the tenants would treat their wives – they were regularly beaten up. These women would run to my mother after they were attacked and I would hear their stories, it left a lasting impression on me and I think this is what developed my commitment to fight for the rights of rural women and to promote their self-esteem and socio-economic empowerment.
How did this concern for women’s well-being develop into a career for you?
I knew that if I wanted to help these women, I would have to complete my higher education. I wanted to do this in a secular school, but there was strong resistance to this from my family and the local community. My parents received many proposals marriage for me, but had to decline all of them. This put a lot of stress on my family. When I was presented with the opportunity to go to university, the religious groups in my village started protesting and harassing my family, saying that they should withdraw me from university. I told them: “This is my life and my decision - stop harassing my parents.” After I finished my education, a master’s degree in history and international relations I didn’t go back to my village - it was too dangerous. I went to look for a job far outside Dhaka so that my neighbours couldn’t find me and bring me back to marry me off. I chose a very remote religious area in the countryside where women’s participation in the public arena is forbidden. I became a senior trainer on development issues and spent my time doing motivation and providing technical assistance.
When did you first become involved with women working in the garment industry?
I have always been interested in the linkages between gender and development and I believe that all NGOs need to integrate gender issues into their programming. I work to promote women’s leadership in NGOs, but the problem in Bangladesh is that most women are not given a proper education so they cannot write project proposals and so forth. 99% of organisations are all male-centred. I wanted to help these organisations develop women’s leadership, so I decided to leave this job in the countryside to try to help other women’s NGO leaders and other government departments integrate women’s issues.
I went to go and work for the Canadian Development Agency and my office window overlooked the street where lots of women working in the garment trade would walk by and the queue up for work at the garment factories. They were always looking down and seemed worried and insecure.
I decided that the best way I could help was to set up evening schools for garment workers. Most of the female garment workers I had seen from my office were young and from the countryside. They did not know the first thing about life in the city or how to look after themselves. They were highly insecure - there was no social safety net and no social protection for them. My objective was to learn more about the struggles they were facing both inside and outside the factory. We gave books and materials to these girls, but 6 months after the school was set up, we were targeted by a gang who didn’t like this kind of work and the ideas we were putting in the heads of these girls. They wanted us to bribe them to keep the school open, which we wouldn’t and so this initiative came to an end.
What were the struggles that these women told you about?
There were two main problems that these girls said they had and they were inter-related: finding safe accommodation and low wages. The factories were located in the centre of town, so these girls needed to find cheap housing in slum areas. They had to travel about 5 miles between the slums and the factories, which was very unsafe for young girls. Many girls were living as paying guests, but they had no bargaining power and so because of the high rental prices, many of them were sleeping together on the same crowded floor. Most were raped. Within the factories, wages were very low and because about 90% of them were illiterate they couldn’t understand how their wages were calculated and what they were being paid.
I decided to find an alternative approach to organise safe accommodation for girls coupled with basic education including information on labour rights and women’s rights. I set up a residential school, which ran as a night school for 10 years. We closed the school in 2000 when all girls were granted a free high school education. This was when I set up NUK.
What changes have you seen in terms of the position of women in Bangladesh and conditions in factories in the last 10 years since you set up NUK?
The main change is in education, which has then allowed them to take more leadership roles in government and in the economy. In 1997, for first time in Bangladesh, women were allowed direct participation in local government. Due to that legal change, we now have 1200 women working in rural government (in 68,000 villages) and 1500 women working in city government. Women’s leadership has been greatly enhanced, and our voices are now being heard.
At NUK we want to see more educated girls in factories, to encourage the girls from conservative religious rural areas to go to school. What tends to happen is that girls receive some level of education, but then drop out and come to the city to work in the garment industry. We train girls to stand up for themselves and for their rights. They face a lot of intimidation, which we call ‘eve-teasing’ here – inappropriate language and teasing by men in public places. The amount of women in leadership and management roles in garment factories has unfortunately not changed as much as in some other areas over the past 10 years, but the number of skilled women workers in the industry has increased a lot, which is a good sign.
Another thing that has really changed is that after 2005 and the end of the Multi Fibre Agreement quota system, NUK was granted much better access to factories so that we could come in and talk directly to the workers. Before that, we had to work outside the factories. Now there is much better cooperation with factory management. This is mainly due to the social compliance initiatives of the foreign brands putting pressure on factory management to allow NGOs like us into the factories. Before 2005, when we had the quota system, social compliance played a much lesser role than it does today.
What do you think is the best way to solve and address the problems women face in the Bangladeshi supply chain?
A coordinated approach is best I believe: brands working with the factory management and the NGOs to support workers’ develop and to help them understand their rights. Bangladeshi women want to be economically empowered and self-sufficient and are working very hard to achieve this. The garment industry is very male dominated and the industry needs to understand that women are just as capable of succeeding in the technical and managerial roles as men. The garment export industry has already done a huge amount to empower women in Bangladesh and give them opportunities that they otherwise would not have had, but we have a long way still to go.
My hope is that brands continue to source from Bangladesh so that women are able to earn money, learn new skills and gain greater social and economic empowerment.