Introduction
Globalization has created fast movements of goods and services among the world economies. Globalization is marked by free-trade, liberalization, removal of tariff barriers, capital movement and development in IT and many other factors. The idea of tariff preferences for developing countries led to many discussions within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the 1960s. The scheme was created following recommendations by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It is also based upon Word Trade Organization’s enabling cause, which allows developed countries to create trading preferences for developing countries.
European Union is the world’s largest market in terms of import and exports. It has trade agreements all over the world, and EU presently claims to account for around 16% of world imports and exports. In terms of its relations with developing economies around the globe, the EU states that it is ‘the most open market to developing countries in the world’. One of its strategies for encouraging trade with developing economies is the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). Being granted GSP or GSP+ status is said to allow developing countries to pay fewer of no duties on export to EU. Giving them vital access to EU market and contributing to their growth.
Those countries included in the scheme are required by the EU to put into practice key United Nations human rights and International Labour Organisation conventions relating to fair employment. The trade agreement thus aims to influence the relationship of government of EU’s trading partner to the wider business environment, and to go some way in defining the responsibility that government owes to its citizens, as workers in the international economy. GSP/GSP+ has three objectives:
• Contribute to poverty eradication by expanding exports from countries most in need
• Promote sustainable development and good governance
• Ensure that EU’s financial and economic interest are safeguarded
SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka has been beneficiary of EU’s GSP since the scheme’s interception, and it began to benefit from GSP+ status on 15 July 2005 After the tsunami. However on 15 august 2010 Sri Lanka’s GSP+ status was suspended by EU. The EU’s decision to withdraw GSP+ benefit from Sri Lanka was based on the findings of a commission investigation that identified limitations in the implementation of three human rights convention:
• The international covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR)
• The convention against torture (CAT)
• The convention on rights of the child (CRC)
Between 2005 and 2010, under GSP+ status, Sri Lanka’s export to EU grew by 7.96%. contrastingly during 2010 to 2015 period, Sri Lanka export to EU merely grow by 1.02%. the most direct impact was tariff being reinstated on Sri Lankan exports to EU, making them uncompetitive compared to similar exports from other developing countries like India and Bangladesh.
On 19 May 2017, the EU granted Sri Lanka better access to EU for its exports, it did so under the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preference Plus (GSP+). By granting this concession Sri Lanka will benefit from the full removal of tariff on Sri Lanka’s exports to EU on 66% of tariff lines (approximately 1200 Sri Lankan products) covering a wide array of products including textiles, machinery and fisheries.
Among all the products exported from Sri Lanka most exported product is Tea with contributes to 12% of the total country’s export at an export value of $1.24 billion. Europe market consumes 61% of the total Sri Lankan tea exports. Despite all of this tea workers in Sri Lanka are barely able to scrape by.
SUB-HUMAN CONDITIONS OF LIVING
Life for the workers on these plantations had always been noted for its strict disciplinary and hierarchical structure, the repetitive nature and physical strain of the actual tasks involved, and the difficult and sub-human conditions of living. Among all that tea labourers are exposed to chemicals due to extensive use of pesticides in tea gardens.
The housing for tea workers does not even meet the primary needs; they still live in rows of workers and houses located in the middle of plantation, so basically all the people working in tea gardens are living on remote areas with no access to rest of the world. the houses they live in are more than a decade ago. Even the basic facility for tea plantation workers are rear, there is no running water, only the back-breaking slog of pulling up a bucket from a well.
CHILD LABOUR
Children often work to help and support their families. Living on remote estates it is often difficult for children to get to school if the estate does not provide education. many children have little else to do than work. Much of the work children do is considered as “helping out” their parents. As such, they are officially not employed and commonly are not protected by local labour laws. the extreme poverty faced by my tea workers means that the children’s income is vital to support their families. These factors create conditions for child labour. As more children enter the workforce, adult’s wages are driven down, resulting in vicious circle of poverty.
WAGES
Sri Lanka’s tea estate workers began in April 2017 to vocally demand for an increase in their wages from 620 rupees ($4.14) a day to 1000 rupees ($6.68) a day. the workers have long pushed for more money. The estate sector trade union and plantation companies reached an agreement in October through reconciliation from government agencies, for a minimum wage of 530 rupees ($3.53) per day and an incentive of 730 rupees ($4.87) a day based upon 75% attendance during the month. Under this agreement workers who don’t show up at least 75% of time in month will earn less than what they used to earn before but the workers who picked more than then “estate/division norms” earn an extra 25 rupees ($0.17) per kilogram for the extra tea leaves they harvest, but many tea workers still oppose the agreement and continue to protest.
ETHICAL TEA PARTNERSHIP
Many company now source their tea from farms and estates that have been independently verified by a third party to be free from labor exploitation. Fairtrade, Rainforest alliance and UTZ certified are examples of such certification schemes. These schemes comply with the standards set by the international labor organizations which include provision on wages, safety standards and child labor. Other initiatives have developed to support the sustainable development of tea industry, such as Ethical Tea Partnership.
ETP partnership with care international helped improve living working conditions on 13 Tea estate in Sri Lanka through the implementation of community development forum (CDF’s). CDF’s are like mini parliament that bring together worker management, trade union officials and community/state residence to discuss working and living conditions on tea estates.
BANGLADESH
As a Least Developed Country (LDC), Bangladesh benefits from the most favorable regime available under the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preference (GSP), namely everything but arms (EBA) arrangement. EBA grants 48 LDC’s including Bangladesh duty free quota, free access to EU for exports of all products, except arms and ammunitions. Bangladeshi goods export is exempted from normal custom duties as follow:
• Standard Reductions
o 3.5% below normal custom duty for sensitive products
o zero duties for no sensitive products
o 20% reduction in duties for textile products
• Zero Duty for up to 7200 different products, under Everything but Arms as long as it meets certain criteria for good governance and sustainable development.
EU is Bangladesh’s main trading partner accounting for around 12% of Bangladesh’s total trade. From 2011 to 2015 Bangladesh’s export to increase from €10.8 billion to €17.6 billion. Bangladesh main export industry is textiles and clothing (primary Ready-Made Garments) which comprises of 90% of the country total export to EU. Bangladesh and European Union has welcomed the continuous efforts of international labor standards to bring together the various stakeholders in order to recognize the various challenges faced by the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh. The national tripartite plan of action for fire safety and structural integrity in the RMG factories of Bangladesh and the Joint statement by tripartite with the International Labour Organization comprises of the key directions for increasing efforts to improve working conditions of labourers. These include freedom of association and occupational safety and health in Bangladesh’s RMG and textile sector. But in spite of all these efforts workers at ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh are still facing many problems. These may vary from low wages to working environment.
RMG LABORERS
RMG sector workers in Bangladesh have protested against their low wages several times now. Their First protest broke out in year 2006 after that there has been regular protests by these workers. Which led the government to increase the minimum wage level. Many factories in Bangladesh frequently undermine when it comes to workers health and safety due to pressure from ordering companies to make tight deadlines due to which management often pushes their workers in order to ensure that the order is fulfilled.
The situation becomes even more adverse when it comes to female workers. The female workers are put at a risk to different occupational health hazards such as work environment hazards, physical hazards and mental hazards. The work environment hazards comprise of long working hours, absence of paid leaves, congested and overcrowded working environment, absence of health facilities and safety measures, absence of staff utility’s, lack of access to safe drinking water. On the other hand, there are certain physical hazards which include exposures to toxic agents, difficult postures and repetitive motion. Exposure to verbal, psychological, sexual harassment and violence at these factories are some of the usual mental health hazards. These hazards do not only affect the workers’ mental and physical wellbeing but also the standard of work and productivity of employees.
Musculoskeletal disorder is also a major trouble for the textile workers. These complaints are related to highly monotonous movements, repetitive hand and arm movements, awkward postures in seated positions, prolonged working hours without sufficient breaks and awfully designed work stations. These risk factors result in unfavourable health outcomes of the workers such as musculoskeletal complaints of hands, back, neck, lower limbs and shoulders.
GSP STATUS
The Generalized Scheme of Preference was suspended in June 2013 in response to the collapse of Rana Plaza factory complex which killed several workers and reason for this collapse was defined as poor working conditions in factories. In July 2013, the EU took an initiative of launching a Sustainability Compact for Bangladesh, which will run until 2018 with the aim of improving labor rights and factory safety in the ready-made garment industry. The initiative brings together EU, Government of Bangladesh, USA, and Canada-i.e. main markets of Bangladeshi RMG industry – as well as International Labor Organization (ILO). The compact is based on three long and short-term commitments:
• Respect for labor rights
• Responsible business conduct
• Structural integrity of buildings and occupational safety and health.
The contract has led to tangible improvement in workplace safety, and working conditions in the industry. A number of labour rights are better protected in Bangladesh today than they were when the Rana Plaza tragedy happened, though respect of workers’ rights remaining a pressing issue in Bangladesh.
RESULTS OF BANGLADESH’S SUSTAINABILITY COMPACT
1. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the registration of trade unions were adopted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) in May 2017 which should bring more clarity and consistency to the union registration process.
2. Standard Operating Procedures for Unfair Labour Practices (ULP) were adopted by the Government of Bangladesh in July 2017.
3. The total number of trade unions in the RMG sector continued to increase, reaching 644 by 30 September 2017. Some 524 new garment industry trade unions have been registered since 2013.
4. Progress in the remediation of RMG factories has continued under all three inspection initiatives: the Bangladesh Accord for Fire and Building Safety, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Government of Bangladesh’s National Initiative. The launch of a Remediation Coordination Cell in May 2017 to oversee the remediation process in National Initiative factories is a major step forward.
PROSPECT OF GARMENT SECTOR IN BANGLADESH
Apart of some problems, the prospect to garment sector in Bangladesh is very promising. In 1980 there were on bunch of factories employing few thousand people. currently there are around 4500 factories. The RMG sector contributes around 90% of total export earnings.
Investments by European company in Bangladesh has led to development of several sectors in economy and has offered many advantages like:
• Creating new jobs and helping local skill base
• Helping improve working conditions by introducing policies like corporate social responsibility and responsible business conduct
• Bringing advance technologies, products, services and business practices.
• Raising the level of Bangladeshi products and helping them compete in international market.
• Diversifying Bangladesh’s economy, reducing its vulnerability to shocks.
Conclusion
The conditions of workers both in Sri Lanka’s tea sector and Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector have been worse over past few decades. In the respective sectors of both the countries child laborers is hugely employed and laborers of both the economies are under paid. There has been a lot done to eradicate poor working conditions of laborers in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh over past few years, but it is not enough. For Sri Lanka’s tea sector, there are lot of steps that have been taken in order to eradicate poverty and improve working conditions of the tea laborers in the form Ethical Tea Partnership, Fairtrade, Rainforest alliance and UTZ certified but it is still not enough as till date tea laborers earn less than $10 a day while living on remote tea farms with no access to proper sanitation facilities, cut out with rest of the world. And neither the children on these farms have access proper education system. For Bangladesh ready-made garment sector EU has launched a sustainability compact with the aim to improve labor rights and factory safety in this industry but there is still child employment practiced in RMG sector. RMG sector employ large number of women laborers which are expose to verbal, psychological, sexual harassment and violence in these factories. Above all the rich and poor gap in the country has increased over years from 0.458 in 2010 to 0.483 in 2016 meaning that richer become richer and poor