Is it ethical to buy clothes made in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is today the second largest exporter of readymade apparel in the world, trailing only China. It is also the focus of much critical reporting about poor labor conditions in its garment factories. However, in Bangladesh itself there is widespread agreement – among entrepreneurs, government officials, NGOs, labor activists, development experts – that working conditions and wages have improved significantly in recent years. 

by Marianne Scholte

We have been conditioned to shop with a bad conscience. I purchase a shirt at a boutique on the Ku’damm in Berlin and comment to the saleswoman that it was made in Bangladesh. Before I can complete my sentence, she sighs and apologizes: “Yes, the working conditions are so very bad there, but what to do? Everything is made abroad these days.”

“No, no,” I correct her, “I lived in Bangladesh. I have been in some of these factories. And I am pleased to buy something made there.” The saleswoman is astonished. Then I explain to her that garment factory jobs are the only formal-sector jobs available to rural young women in Bangladesh, who otherwise are married off at a very young age.

I explain that garments are the biggest and most important industrial sector in Bangladesh today, employing 3.5 million people directly and millions more indirectly. I explain that the wages are indeed low there, but that this is the reason that so many firms, including all the major German retailers, source there and thus create jobs. And that improvements have been made in wages and working conditions and will continue to be made. The saleswoman thanks me for the information, apparently pleased to have something positive to say to the next customer who complains about the labor conditions in Bangladesh.

Earlier this year, Markencheck continued the barrage of negative reporting about garment factories in Bangladesh with programs on Lidl and H&M.

To stop buying Bangladeshi garments is not the solution!

Interview with Mr. Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, Assistant Executive Director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies by Marianne Scholte

The Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies was established in 1995 with the support of the trade union movement and is associated with 14 national trade union centers. It is the only labor institute in Bangladesh.
  

Dhaka, 5 February 2012

Scholte: There has been a lot of press coverage in Germany about poor labor conditions in Bangladesh garment factories. In January, the German TV program Markencheck brought footage of poor Bangladeshi girls who work in factories that produce for Lidl and H&M and do not make enough money to live. The H&M program also showed part of an interview with you, where you say that garment workers need at least 7000 taka (EUR 70) to cover their basic needs.

Uddin Ahmmed: Yes, I was interviewed, but I did not know that I appeared in German television.

Scholte: After the show, people started to question whether they should buy clothes made in Bangladesh. What would be your message to German consumers?

Uddin Ahmmed: My message would be: buy garments made in Bangladesh and help rural Bangladeshi girls to be self-reliant and have a dignified life.

Scholte: How does a German consumer do that? German consumers want to help the poor girls they saw on the Markencheck television shows – but they do not know how to help. What can they do?

Uddin Ahmmed:  As Germany is the second largest importer from Bangladesh and number one in Europe, consumers can put pressure on the buyers to pay a fair price for their order and ensure that a fair share goes to the worker.

Germany is a democracy, so German civil society, on behalf of German consumers, should mobilize the German Government to communicate with our government and insist on measures to secure international labor standards for the workers. There are government to government relations in many areas, including technical cooperation support.

Even more importantly, safeguard the activists who promote the rights of workers. Help them mobilize and organize workers. The Government of Bangladesh does not allow or safeguard trade union activities, does not allow mass mobilization or protect the leaders.

This is what German consumers can do. To stop buying Bangladesh products is not the solution. This would make it worse for workers in Bangladesh.

"Garment workers enjoy a better standard of living than the average Bangladeshi."

Interview with Mr. Md. Fazlul Hoque, President of the Bangladesh Employers' Federation by Marianne Scholte

Mr. Hoque is the owner of two garment factories in Naranganj, with 600 workers each, and previously served three terms as the President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, from April 2004 until July 2010.

Dhaka, 2 February 2012

Scholte: There was a lot of critical reporting earlier this year in Germany about labor conditions in Bangladeshi factories. Did you see it?

Hoque: Yes. I would like to go to Germany to talk to people who have a bad image of readymade garment producers in Bangladesh. We can organize seminars, we can invite the media. I would like to face them directly. Bring your questions and I will answer.

I have good connections with the employers‘ federation in Germany and I have the certification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that Bangladesh is child-labor free and has relatively good working conditions. You can find it in the ILO annual report.

In 1996-97 we also had very bad publicity and orders dropped almost 50% because of bad press on child labor. Then we brought ILO on board and did a project with them. ILO will certify that we have no child labor today.

Scholte: But wages in Bangladesh are so low. How can workers live on them?

Hoque: The readymade garment sector is the only industry in Bangladesh that has a minimum wage: 3000 taka. This is the highest official entry level in the country. No one else pays this. The entry level is 3000 taka and the range goes up to 20,000. Workers paid on a piece-rate basis earn more. Most workers – 60% – earn 6000 to 10,000 takas a month.

The readymade garment industry is not isolated. You have to consider the overall economic, social, political situation of Bangladesh. This is not Germany. If you try and find a problem, you will find ten. I also see many problems in Germany. There are problems in any country.

If you take the Bangladesh standard of living earnestly, you will find that the garment workers enjoy a better standard of living than the average Bangladeshi. The working environment is one of the best available to workers in Bangladesh. You cannot take a yardstick from Germany and use it in Bangladesh. You have to think about the overall socio-economic situation in Bangladesh.

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