Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Garment owners have started shedding jobs in manufacturing plants as cost cutting measures to cope up with rising production costs and falling export orders due to political turmoil.
The trimming involve mostly seventh grade jobs, industry sources said.
“Factories, including large, medium and small, are cutting jobs in line with their plan to trim costs. The job cut targeted 10 per cent of the total workforce in knitwear industry,” Mohammad Hatem, former Vice-President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) told The New Nation on Wednesday.
He said the country’s garments sector is now caught in a downturn with additional cost burden from rising wages, upgrading its safety standards and declining export orders. Eventually it is forcing the manufacturers to cut jobs.
Mohammad Hatem, who is the owner of MB Knit Fashion, further said, they are basically cutting the seventh grade jobs (helpers) to cope with the situation. “My factory also shed 80 jobs so far,” he added.
“The cost cutting measures will affect thousands of jobs that could lead to a fresh labour unrest,” he said.
When asked, Mohammad Hatem, said, the current political situation is severely disrupting shipments and production of RMG industry, forcing the exporters to suffer huge losses.
“The sector has already lost 25-30 per cent orders. Moreover, buyers have stopped placing new orders in Bangladesh, which would leave significant impact on the sector to achieve this year’s export target,” he said.
He added that fall in export is evident in key export markets. So, we may not reach export target set at $27 billion for the current fiscal if the political unrest continues further.”
“Many jobs were eliminated while renovating those to improve safely standards in line with the buyers’ requirements. Job slashing accelerated further in the wake of declining export orders due to political unrest,” said Shirajul Islam Rony, a labour leader.
He alleged that some factory owners have resorted to retrench workers unlawfully which might fuel labour unrest at the key garment industrial belts.
The process is still going on, Rony said. But he could not figure out the actual number of workers so far lost their jobs.
“Falling export orders with rising cost of production has put the RMG sector in a tight corner forcing the entrepreneurs to adopt a cost cutting measure,” M Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told The New Nation.
He added that buyers have stopped placing adequate export orders due to recurrence of political unrest coupled with eroding competitiveness of local industry and safety concern.
“Our member factories have reported a 10-15 per cent job cuts to cope with the current situation. Even, they have stopped overtime of their workers due to insufficient export orders,” he noted.
M Shahidullah Azim mentioned that when factories had adequate orders, they had to set up 42 swing machines in a production line. Now they have reduced it to 35 machines following fall in orders.
“As we can hardly compromise in utility bills, we must minimize cost by trimming jobs. Hundreds of jobs have already been eliminated in this way,” he added.
“Most exporters have already utilized their existing export orders. They may not run their factories from next month once they failed to receive new export order. If it happens, most garment factories will fail to clear workers’ wages from April,” he apprehends.
