Interviews
Manpower shortage put RMG exports in jeopardy
20 Oct '08
2 min read
The garment export industry is growing by leaps, but at the same time is chained by a very serious constraint. The constraint has to do with a serious manpower shortage in the readymade garment industry.
The RMG industry is working at 75 percent capacity, due to serious paucity of workers and supervisors. Experts are pointing out at many reasons for this situation. The main reason is wages paid to workers of RMG units. According to experts, cost of living has gone up considerably, but workers continue to be paid at same levels as those prevailing previously.
This has led to serious discontent among workers and was one of the major reasons for strikes affecting the sector a few months back. This has led to migration of workers to better paying jobs in other sectors while some have migrated abroad to other RMG centre's like Vietnam, Taiwan, China etc on lure of better pay packages.
Experts say that this situation could pose a serious impediment to the country's projected export turnover of US $ 25 billion by 2010. Last fiscal year, Bangladesh generated an export turnover of $14.1 billion from the RMG sector alone. The industry also accounts for 75 percent of all exports from the country.
They suggest that employment, payment of salaries and benefits should be systemized to give them a sense of security. Employers should also try to understand the genuine problems of these workers and take measures before things get out of hand.
They also suggest that to overcome shortage of labour in the sector, more training institutes should be opened which will provide short term courses to workers. Otherwise they warn that if the shortage is allowed to deteriorate further it will lead to serious consequence including a dip in the growth rates achieved by the RMG sector in the last few years.
The RMG industry is working at 75 percent capacity, due to serious paucity of workers and supervisors. Experts are pointing out at many reasons for this situation. The main reason is wages paid to workers of RMG units. According to experts, cost of living has gone up considerably, but workers continue to be paid at same levels as those prevailing previously.
This has led to serious discontent among workers and was one of the major reasons for strikes affecting the sector a few months back. This has led to migration of workers to better paying jobs in other sectors while some have migrated abroad to other RMG centre's like Vietnam, Taiwan, China etc on lure of better pay packages.
Experts say that this situation could pose a serious impediment to the country's projected export turnover of US $ 25 billion by 2010. Last fiscal year, Bangladesh generated an export turnover of $14.1 billion from the RMG sector alone. The industry also accounts for 75 percent of all exports from the country.
They suggest that employment, payment of salaries and benefits should be systemized to give them a sense of security. Employers should also try to understand the genuine problems of these workers and take measures before things get out of hand.
They also suggest that to overcome shortage of labour in the sector, more training institutes should be opened which will provide short term courses to workers. Otherwise they warn that if the shortage is allowed to deteriorate further it will lead to serious consequence including a dip in the growth rates achieved by the RMG sector in the last few years.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Popular News
Leave your Comments
Editor’s Pick
Esteemed Clients
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
