The New Nation - Internet Edition

Syful Islam

Acute labour shortage in the Readymade Garment (RMG) sector is causing low productivity leaving the industry owners at dire state, stakeholders say.

The labour crisis is also causing late shipment of orders resulting cancellation of those, they added.

Factory owners fail to get adequate labour even after appointing agents to recruit the same.

Stakeholders say low wages and pressure of high price of commodities forced the workers to leave the sector and find new jobs. They also said a big number of skilled garment workers left the country for United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and China to earn higher salaries.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) leaders said the sector is facing shortage of 25 per cent skilled labours and midlevel employees. The crisis is increasing in the last few months.

BGMEA Director and managing Director of Envoy Group Abdus Salam Murshedi said the RMG industry is facing severe labour shortage that is hindering production. They have appointed agents to find out labour for the factories but those fail to supply the same.

Explaining the reasons of labour crisis he said Vietnam, UAE and China has invested huge amount in RMG sector in the recent past. But those countries have no adequate labour of their own. As a result they are hiring cheap labour from Bangladesh. He said thousands of labour left Bangladesh in the last six months.

Murshedi identified inflation as another reason of labour crisis in the RMG sector. "The salary hike of RMG workers is no enough comparing the cost of living. This is also forcing workers to find other jobs," he said.

He emphasised on enhancing skill of workers through training, as number of unemployed people in the country is huge. He said the RMG business may go out of control of Bangladesh unless adequate skilled labour were produced through government-private sector joint initiatives.

BGMEA in a research paper mentioned that the cost of living in the RMG sector increased by 10 per cent comparing to march 2007. The workers are changing factories frequently to chase high salary.

President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Huq said the shortage of labour in the RMG industry remains always but the present scenario is totally different.

He said previously they got huge response when put advertisement in the newspaper seeking workers'. But now they get low response despite repeated advertisement.

Sources said an entry-level worker gets Tk 1,662 as salary under the enhanced wages structure. They get Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,500 after working for 3 months. On the other hand a skilled labour gets Tk 3,000 as salary. But they get huge salary in the garment factories in Vietnam, China and UAE. The factory owners are providing free air tickets to take labours' from Bangladesh.