Home-based garments workers: Livelihoods hanging by a thread

The ready-made garments (RMG) industry continues to be the largest employer of women in Bangladesh, despite experiencing a decline of 53.65% in 2021 (GIZ & ETI: 2023). 

This sector has provided income-generating opportunities for poor and marginalised women from vulnerable households, with minimal skills and education required to enter the RMG workforce.

When we hear the term "RMG sector," we often envision rows of women hunched over sewing machines or cutting tables, toiling away in a noisy and chaotic environment. However, we tend to overlook the women who work as sub-contractors or "home-based workers," as they are commonly referred to, labouring in unhealthy and indecent conditions throughout Bangladesh. 

This sub-sector remains largely invisible, despite providing "hidden" labour to leading export factories on a piece-rate basis. 

Home-workers have few opportunities to negotiate their working conditions and possess no bargaining power with their employers. Contractors exploit cheap, female labour to their advantage. 

While we take pride in the fact that the RMG industry in Bangladesh is run and facilitated by women, we must not turn a blind eye to this large and vulnerable segment of the workforce.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), home-based workers are individuals who engage in employment activities within the vicinity of their homes or on the premises attached to their homes. 

Within the global fashion industry, these workers are often referred to as "hidden hands," as they perform tasks such as stitching, cutting, embroidery, and trimming for garments supply chains. 

These workers play a crucial role in the garment value chain in countries like India and Bangladesh, where they are employed to complete tasks that require manual labour and provide additional flexible labour as needed.

It is surprising that no concrete data is available on the number of home-based workers employed in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' Labour Force Survey 2017, there are approximately 3.2 million non-agricultural workers in the country, and this number has been increasing due to the employment of more female home-based workers. 

Despite their significant contribution to the RMG sector, these workers are not considered in official statistical measures or industry calculations. 

In South Asia, around 50 million women work as home-based workers, and data from the Bangladesh Labour Foundation indicates that 71% of all female workers and only 20% of male workers are home-based in Bangladesh. 

These numbers suggest that the population of female home-based workers is vast and plays a crucial role in the RMG sector. Urban home-based workers often reside in slums, while rural workers face even worse socio-economic conditions due to low wages and limited market access.

The exclusion of home-based workers from the formal value chain allows factories and employers to take advantage of unrecognised labour, depriving these workers of the protections afforded by Bangladesh Labour Law. 

It is essential to recognise that these female home-based workers are a vital part of the economy, as they also facilitate the operations of small and medium-sized enterprises. Despite the passing of the ILO Convention in 1996, which recognised home-based workers as "workers," Bangladesh has yet to ratify this convention and introduce corresponding policies. 

The question remains: why are these workers excluded?

The issue of excluding home-based workers from the formal value chain cannot be attributed to a single entity. In Bangladesh, large factories or businesses strive to reduce production costs and increase inventory efficiency to remain competitive in the global market. 

The major brands placing orders can only track garments back to the factory and are hesitant to demand transparency in the value chain by requiring factories to document their sub-contracted factories or labour. 

Ultimately, the large factories benefit by paying lower wages, neglecting the formal inclusion of home-based workers, disregarding their fair demands and avoiding any unrest among the workers if their demands are not met.

Sub-contractors are also struggling to survive in the current economy. They receive a limited budget for operational expenses and procurement from the larger factories, which leads to them offering below-par wages to home-based workers. 

Unfortunately, they often have limited knowledge about wages or lack negotiation tactics, which results in them accepting unfair terms for their output. This vicious cycle is still prevalent in many regions of our country, and without a solution in sight, people have become resigned to their circumstances. 

Home-based workers work in extremely poor conditions, endure long hours, and possess minimal skills to operate a needle, scissors or a sewing machine. In many cases, the lengthy, sedentary nature of work leads to deteriorating eyesight and spinal conditions. 

The overall exploitation of female home-based workers has become widely accepted due to a lack of supervision and governance in this particular segment of the value chain, with exploiters taking advantage of the policy gap that arises when there is no social or formal contract of employment between the two parties.

The main remedy to this issue lies in fair and ethical trading practices. Bangladesh cannot be forever known as the country that produces "cheap garments." In recent years, up to 50% of suppliers in the global value chain have contracted for below-cost prices in hopes of securing future orders, and Bangladesh is no exception (ILO 2017). 

This approach does not align with the vision of a fair and sustainable value chain that we aspire to develop in our country. 

It is important to remember that every aspect of this sector, from threads to pins to labels, is interconnected. Cheap garment production contributes to fast fashion and cheap labour, resulting in a wasteful environment. 

Ultimately, every inhabitant of the world will suffer due to a lack of prudent planning for the sustainability of this industry.

To ensure a just transition for female home-based workers, we need to promote and practise fair trading practices and hold larger brands accountable for their purchasing practices. 

The bigger the brand, the more power it holds to change the exploitative system of hidden labour of home-based workers. As responsible citizens, we can use our voice to help vulnerable women in rural or urban communities gain protection from exploitative trading practices. 

Raisa Adiba is a development worker who enjoys writing as a hobby, among many other things

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.