KR3Z-H5SM-HF Increasing female voices within the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh and Pakistan through Social Dialogue

The UK and Norwegian Ethical Trading Initiatives have been delivering a Social Dialogue (SD) programme in Bangladesh since 2015 with the overall aim to contribute to better working conditions and strengthened businesses through the development of better industrial relations at the workplace in the Bangladeshi Garments and Textiles Sector. This is done through enhancing the capacity of factory management teams and workers to organise workplace bipartite dialogues including dispute resolution mechanisms and the promotion of workers’ representation and freedom of expression. It is envisioned that this in turn produces a more motivated and stable workforce as well as more skilled managers and supervisors able to effectively and equally contribute to an improved work environment positively affecting productivity and quality. ETI UK and Norway’s corporate members in the apparel and textile (A&T) sector serve as a fundamental stakeholder enabling the project to access factory owners and management representatives and getting their buy-in to participate in the initiative. The programme has so far been able to deliver SD training in 50 factories reaching approximately 120,000 workers. Early data, collected as part of the initial intervention phase, indicate that effective social dialogue can lead to increased participation of women within the workplace, reduce overall absenteeism, increase productivity, and improve the understanding of rights and responsibilities among all factory stakeholders. The programme is currently further validating these early indications by conducting a larger evaluation of the work carried out thus far with funding from the Norwegian government (NORAD), which will be completed in Spring 2020. In addition to the funding already committed by NORAD and HSBC, ETI UK signed a new contract with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in November 2019 which will enable ETI to scale up its activities to 100 additional factories in Bangladesh by the end of 2023. The programme also aims to incorporate a new component designed to address the issue of workplace sexual violence and discrimination through providing capacity building support to established Sexual Harassment Complaints Committees in 60 factories already targeted by the SD intervention. Through the new contract, the programme will also initiate a pilot SD intervention in Karachi in the Sindh Province of Pakistan reaching workers tied to approximately 25 factories. The pilot will be implemented by ETI’s local partner Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) whom ETI has previously worked with specifically focusing on advocacy and research related to Human Rights Due Diligence in the country. It is anticipated that the partnership between ETI and PILER will also be further strengthened through the intervention.