Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- How are the workplace violence and harassment issues addressed in employment regulations in Bangladesh?
- What role have managers played in addressing gender-based violence and harassment and ensuring workplace well-being in the RMG industry?
2. Concepts and Theory
2.1. Concepts
2.2. Theory
3. Contexts
3.1. Violence against Women in the Family and in Society in Bangladesh
3.2. The RMG Industry
3.3. Global Framework on Workplace Violence and Harassment
4. Methods
4.1. Data Collection Techniques
4.2. Research Settings, Participants, and Recruitment
4.3. Data Collection, Management, and Analysis
5. Findings
5.1. Workplace Violence and Harassment
5.1.1. Employment Regulation of Gender-Based Violence and Harassments
And when a pedestrian is teasing or harassing me, it is a crime. But when someone is harassing me where I work, the nature of this crime is completely different. Because I am afraid of losing my job. That is why sexual harassment in the workplace is being addressed globally separately. Maybe in general law (in Bangladesh), this issue is addressed separately… Workplace sexual harassment laws discuss what the responsibilities of the employers would be… This full area is totally missing from our legal framework.
“Conduct towards women—Where any woman is employed in any work of any establishment, whatever her rank or status may be, no person of that establishment shall behave with her which may seem to be indecent or unmannerly or which is repugnant to the modesty or honour of that woman” ([70], p. 8043).
The weakest aspect of Section 332, the problem with our labour law, is that it is not permissible to behave indecently, but there is no definition of indecent behaviour. Therefore, when the labour law is amended, we have requested to define indecent behaviour there.
5.1.2. Laws on Violence and Harassment against Women in Society and Family
Your boss is behaving with you in a way that the law does not even recognise. Suppose my boss is texting me every day; “You have to come to dinner, you have to come to dinner”. For seven days, you did not accept his proposal; on the eighth day, you saw that those who were in a lower grade than you were being given bonuses or promotions. This is not a crime in law. …It is not defined in any of our laws, nor is there any general law in the Women and Child Repression Act, nor in the penal code.
You know about the new ILO convention, if a specific law is made based on the Convention 190 to prevent gender-based violence and sexual harassment at workplaces, that would protect our workers.….in the Women and Child Suppression Act-2000, regarding workplace problems, a lot of things are not covered. For this reason, a new law is required.
5.2. Management Practices for Eliminating Workplace Violence and Harassment
5.2.1. Workplace Policies and Strategies on Workplace Violence—A Neglected Issue
One option was, to prevent sexual harassment, and gender-based violence at workplaces, the High Court Directives of 2009. If I want to enforce that verdict in the factory, then they (factories) are supposed to have gender rights policies. But pretty much all of them do not have these policies. Even if they have, it is just for showoff; there are very few who have a complaint committee or an active anti-harassment committee.
the garments sector has not yet corporatised to that level. What happens when there is a corporate structure, the overall activities are very institutionalized and are directed through a type of legal structure. Our RMG industry is far from these structures.
5.2.2. Implementation of the High Court Directives (HCD)—An Imposition, Rather a Proactiveness
…… one measure that is being called the High Court directives, as long as no new law. How much of it is being reflected or implemented—there are enough reasons to think about it. There are some organizations (NGOs), and some factories, who are trying to implement it. But we are saying the implementation is not to that level as we expected.
we have conducted programmes in over 200 factories, including workers and owners. We are informing them about what is said in the laws/rules or in other regulations, what reproductive health is, if there is any problem (gender-based) in their factories, how can they get remedies and what are the mechanisms of the government along with the helplines.
5.2.3. Anti-Harassment Committee: A Paper-Based Initiative
No, since it is an internal matter of the factory, external members are not involved.
But the sad thing is, many government or non-government organizations say that the anti-harassment committees are not functional; …the guideline also said that there should be specific laws in this regard as soon as possible. I mean, even though we don’t have a sexual harassment prevention law, as much as there is (like HCD), there is no application for it …. Factories have a committee just in papers.
5.2.4. Grievance Mechanisms—Mainly Compliance
We received sixteen such cases (gender-based violence and harassment) in the entire garment division last year. There were no cases of sexual harassment, but there were two cases of physical harassment and fourteen were verbal abuse.
They (women workers) actually like to complain directly. Because they may explain the complaints in a couple of sentences verbally, rather than sending a letter through the complaints box. Writing a complaint does not fully explain what is on their mind. They are also not using a phone or hotline as they are not used to these technologies. So they come directly to us.
5.2.5. Avoiding Tendency, despite Issue Prevalence
I have received more complaints of verbal abuse, what is called slang language, I have got it in many cases before. Then, we made the management very aware of it. So I got verbal abuse, but I did not get anything like sexual harassment or physical harassment.
Actually, sexual harassment happened from the supervisor to co-workers (women workers). Because they always work together, so whenever supervisors get a chance, they touch different sensitive body parts of the women workers and do different kinds of gestures. But I have not received any such complaint to date, I have heard that these kinds of things are there in other factories.
A male worker is called as ‘brother please do this’. But a woman worker is not called like this, similarly, the behaviour with her is not the same as they do with the male worker. They try to take advantage by calling her sister-in-law so that they can say bad stuff (e.g., slang) to her. You know according to our country’s culture, sister-in-laws, co-relatives, you can have all forms of discussions. “Do your job” by saying this, the supervisor often puts his hands on her back with a bad intention. This is absolutely sexual harassment. Such actions or words are very common for our women.
But bullying is still there; they think it is impossible to get the job done without bullying. The use of slapping or slapping on the body has decreased, but the bullying has not gone away yet.
Previously it was like, not only did they hurl, abuses, but they used to hit too. I know that hurling and abusing still take place in the factory. But in front of us, they are quiet, but we know that they have yelled for sure.
6. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Appendix A.1. Violence and Harassment Convention (No. 190), 2019
Main Features |
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Appendix A.2. Interview Guides (for Both KII and IDI Participants)
Discussion points for KII (Key-Informant Interviews) Participants (NGO activists, Academics, Researchers and Representatives from the ILO) 1. Questions to gather a brief idea about the roles and responsibilities of the KII participants, their connection to the RMG industry, and the role of their organisation in this industry. 2. What are the Employment Regulations (ER) to protect women workers from gender-based violence and sexual harassment in the workplace in Bangladesh? 3. From your work experience, please share your opinion on whether the regulations on gender-based violence available in Bangladesh, are well-equipped to protect women workers from violence in the workplace. (please include an example?) 4. Please share about the workplace policies (HRM Policy, Gender Policy/Women’s Rights Policy, Compliance Policy) available in the RMG industries. Do you find that employment regulations are properly adopted in these policies? Are there any special policies beyond the requirements of the national regulations available and practised in this industry? 5. How had the HCD 2009 been implemented in the RMG factories? 6. Please share the status of the Anti-harassment committee at the RMG factories. 7. How did you find the GBVH issues in the RMG factories through your work experience? 8. What are the grievance management systems in the RMG industry? 9. Do you think the GBVH impacts the workplace well-being at the RMG factories? How? Discussion points for IDI (In-Depth Interviews) Participants (Government officials, RMG Employers/Managers/Officers, Representatives from the Trade Associations) 1. Questions to gather a brief idea about the roles and responsibilities of the IDI participants, their connection to the RMG industry, and the role of their organisation in this industry. 2. The total number of factory workers, the number of women workers, product ranges, production capacity, skill levels of the workers, the establishment of the year, and the role of factory managers. (for RMG factory personnel only) 3. What are the workplace policies/standards/strategies (HRM Policy, Gender Policy/Women’s Rights Policy, Compliance Policy) based on national regulations available in the RMG industry? Are there any special policies beyond the requirements of the national regulations available and practised in this industry? 4. How do you explain the working environment at the/your factory (e.g., workplace attitude and behaviour, treatment from supervisor to workers) at your factory/the RMG industry? Do you/the RMG industry follow any workplace diversity management policy? 5. What are the initiatives/measures taken by the factory managers to implement the HCD 2009 in the RMG factories? 6. Do you have any Anti-harassment committee at your factory/the RMG factories? How many members? Who are the president/secretary/members of this factory? 7. How did you find the GBVH issues in the RMG factories through your regular inspection/work experience? (for public officials/other IDI participants) 8. What are the grievance management systems in the RMG industry? What are the complaint mechanisms? How do they work? 9. How do you explain workplace well-being in your factory? How do you think you can contribute to the sustainability of your business (For factory managers, however, differently asked other IDI participants) |
Appendix A.3. Key Regulations on GBVH in Workplace in Bangladesh
Name of Regulation | Key Features |
Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 |
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Directives on Sexual Harassment (by High Court Division) |
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No | Participants by Type | No of Participants | Gender | Interview Stage | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Female | Male | ||||
1 | Government officials | 8 | 4 | 4 | 29 In-Depth Interviews (IDI) in the second stage |
2 | Factory Managers (HRM Head/HRM Managers/Employers/Welfare Officers) | 19 | 11 | 8 | |
3 | Representatives from Trade Associations | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
4 | NGO Activists (Local and International) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 Key-Informant Interviews (KII) in the first stage |
5 | ILO | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
7 | Researchers and Academics | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
Total | 38 | 23 | 15 |
Size | No. of Factories | Participants | Portfolio and Gender of the Participants | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HR Manager | Welfare Officer | Owner | ||||||
Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |||
Small | 5 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Medium | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Large | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 10 | 19 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
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Akter, R.; Teicher, J.; Alam, Q. Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice. Sustainability 2024, 16, 2132. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052132
Akter R, Teicher J, Alam Q. Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice. Sustainability. 2024; 16(5):2132. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052132
Chicago/Turabian StyleAkter, Rahima, Julian Teicher, and Quamrul Alam. 2024. "Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice" Sustainability 16, no. 5: 2132. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052132
APA StyleAkter, R., Teicher, J., & Alam, Q. (2024). Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice. Sustainability, 16(5), 2132. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052132