ABSTRACT

Bangladesh Readymade Garment (RMG) industry is the country's greatest foreign currency earner, with the global ranking as the second largest exporter. There are 4.2 million workers being employed in this sector where more than 65% workers are female and most of them come from rural areas of Bangladesh. The RMG sector’s working environment is embedded with six working condition factors which are Employment Conditions, Workplace Interaction with Colleagues, Wages and Payments, Workplace internal environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Employee Welfare Measures. This was a descriptive study but exploratory study was conducted by in depth interview to develop the hypothesis. Out of 3620 RMG member factories under BGMEA 49.17% are located in three geographical locations i.e. Savar area, Narayongonj area, Gazipur area. Besides there are 115 RMG factories located in all EPZs of Bangladesh.  In total 204 female workers were selected and surveyed through structured questionnaire to evaluate the prevailing working environment in the RMG sector of Bangladesh from these four locations. The workers always do not get their salary and overtime payments in time. Female workers are sometimes harassed and abused by their supervisors and coworkers. The occupational health and safety issues are also not always maintained properly. Total six working environmental factors were emphasized in this research. It was revealed that out of six working environmental factors Employment conditions do not have significant relationship with the effective working environment. The other five factors like Workplace interaction with colleagues, Wages and payments, work place internal environment, Occupational health and safety and employee welfare measures have strong positive significant relation with effective working environment. The other factors like socio economic factors, entrepreneur’s behavior, leadership style, corporate culture etc. were excluded from the study. Timely receiving of wages and payment, workplace internal environment facilities and occupational health and safety measures need due improvement for strengthening the quality of effective working environment.

Keywords: RMG Sector of Bangladesh, Working Environment, Workplace Interaction, Occupational Health and Safety.