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Apparel In Bangladesh

Apparel In Bangladesh. Bangladesh Facts. Bangladesh has a population of 130 million people. 1.6 million Bangladeshis are employed as garment workers (85% percent of whom are women).

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Apparel In Bangladesh

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  1. Apparel In Bangladesh

  2. Bangladesh Facts • Bangladesh has a population of 130 million people. 1.6 million Bangladeshis are employed as garment workers (85% percent of whom are women). • There are 3,500 export factories in Bangladesh. US companies and factory contractors pay no corporate, property, local, state, income, or sales taxes, and are similarly free from import and export duties. • The country is the third largest apparel exporter to the U.S., and 49% of Bangladesh’s apparel exports are destined for the U.S. market. • 11 Government Labor Ministry employees enforce labor standards for the entire Dhaka area. • 36% of Bangladeshis live below the national poverty line, 50% of children are chronically malnourished, and 68% of women report exhaustion, illness, and family disintegration as a result of overwork. 61% of Bangladeshis over age 15 are illiterate. • Annual per capita income among the population of 128 million is less than $300, and 35.2% of Bangladeshis are unemployed. • A 1995 agreement has eliminated about 95 percent of child labor in the export garment sector.

  3. What should be happening…

  4. Labor Laws in Bangladesh • 48hr regular workweek: 8-hour day, 6-day week • Overtime: must be voluntary, not exceed 12hrs/wk, not average more than 8hrs/wk • OT must be paid double standard wage • Women can not work night shifts or past 8 p.m. • Rest Day: there must be one rest day per week

  5. EPZ Labor Laws • EPZ min sewers wage: 22 cents/hr • EPZ min helpers wage: 18 cents/hr • Benefits: • Rent and transportation subsidies • Medical allowance • Religious festival bonus • 17 days vacation • No right to organize and bargain collectively in EPZ

  6. What’s really happening…

  7. Lim’s Bangladesh Ltd. (EPZ) Hours Standard Shift is 13 hours 30 hours of required overtime The average work week is 6.5 days The average number of hours worked per week is 84.5 hours, but workers are only paid for 75 to 78 of those hours. Wages Sewers are paid less than legal minimum wage of $45 per month. For example, a senior operator is paid $38.33 per month.

  8. A typical helper makes half of the legal min limit = 9 cents an hour • Workers are only paid for one half of the overtime hours they are forced to work. • Percentage of Profit • Workers paid 1.5 cents for every university cap they sew which comes to less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the $18.99 retail price. • The retail price constitutes a 1,400% mark-up over the caps landed US Customs value of $1.23. • Subsistence Level Wage If the wage was raised to this subsistence level rate, then the wages would still amount to just over 1/10th of one percent of the cap’s retails price.

  9. Abuses at Lim’s factory • Headaches, nausea, and vomiting as a result of long working hours and relentless pressure. • No one last pasts 30. • Talking is prohibited. • Must have permission to use the toilet. • No severance pay. • No daycare center. • No sick or personal days.

  10. Country wide Labor Laws (non EPZ) • Min wage: 8 cents/hr • Benefits: • 14 sick days/yr full pay • 10 personal days/yr full pay • 10 religious days/yr full pay • 3 months maternity leave w/ full pay • Factories w/ more than 50 employees must have a daycare center • Healthcare: factories w/ >500 workers must have healthcare clinic and dispensary staffed by Dr.

  11. Country wide Labor Laws (non EPZ) • Severance: Worker is entitled to a severance payment of 5,000 taka ($87.11) for each year worked • Punishments: Any and all forms of physical punishment are outlawed • Rights to organize and bargain collectively are guaranteed by Bangladesh labor laws

  12. Pro-Sports Ltd. (non EPZ) • No Sick Days or Personal Days • No maternity benefits, six weeks leave without pay • No DaycareNo Health Care • No Severance Pay • Harsh Treatment - abusive language, humiliation, insults • Beatings and Physical Abuse - slapping, punching, and beating with sticks • Total Repression of Freedom of Association - any worker suspected of doing so is fired, thrown out, and blacklisted

  13. Wages • Senior operator’s wage: 18 cents an hour • Junior operator’s wage: 13 cents an hour • Helper’s wage: 8 cents an hour • Cheated out of one or more hours of overtime pay each day • Everyone paid one week late, July wages not paid until August

  14. 12 years old, working 98 hours a week, for 8 cents an hour, approx. $31/mo • Beaten, slapped, punched, hit with sticks and beaten with shoes • 18-year-old worked for 14 cents an hour—Forced to work 3, twenty-hour shifts • in a row • On her wages she could barely afford to share a leaky, 10 x 12 foot thatch home • “PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OUR JOBS AWAY!”

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