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Value of T-shirt

5 January 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Abdulla al Mamun Dhaka University
5 January 2006, 18:00 PM
Somehow the death has occurred. “We will pay the victim's family compensation for the death at work. We will sit down with the BGMEA leaders tomorrow and take necessary steps as per their decision,” said Anwar Hossain Manik, managing director of Titanic Product Ltd. He claimed that Titanic has maintained a starling reputation in the garment sectors for the last 15 years. (The Daily Star, 31 December 2005). The garments sector of our country is the leading source of foreign exchange earning. Every country wants to pay attention to its booming sectors to enhance economic prosperity as well as to raise the living standard of people. Thanks to the sweat and blood of cheap labour, the garments sector has developed gradually. Although labour is one of the main inputs of every production, the workers are always ignored.

The news of Panna's death is nothing surprising. There are several unfair labour practices in that sector because of the absence of legal action. The relationship between workers and owners are based on a contract of buying and selling of labour, not a contract of physical punishment or compensation for death.

Our government is not doing what is expected of it. They do not want to take the responsibility of ensuring a healthy ambiance in the industries because of the pressure from the owners of the garment factories. As the garments are a forward linkage industry, their profit depends on the cost of labour. So the manufacturers are always concentrating on reducing the wages to have a robust profit. If there were backward linkage industries it would be possible to earn more profit without reducing the wages. The owners' association holds more power than that of labour organisations in any capitalist society. As a result, influential people always suppress and oppress the deprived groups.

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So we should remove this discrimination by changing the existing system. We should show a greater sensitivity to the cause of the workers.