73% RMG workers want new machines for efficiency, quality: Sanem

Around 73% of garment workers in Bangladesh want new machines in their factories as they improve efficiency, make work easy and ensure better quality, a research has found.

RMG workers said that the new machines made it easier for them to do their work (35% of workers), helped them produce better quality pieces (18% of workers), and gave them an opportunity to learn and gain new experience (8% of workers), it added.

The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) in collaboration with USA-based non-profit organisation Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) prepared the research report on the quality of life of RMG workers in Bangladesh.

This report has been prepared from the survey data collected in June 2022 and the survey is a continuation of the investigation into workers' experience with automation, reads an official press release.  

Around 1,300 selected garment workers are surveyed every week since April 2020 under the project "Garment Worker Diaries." 

These workers are employed in factories spread across the five main industrial areas of Bangladesh – Chattogram, Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Savar. 

Three-quarters of the survey respondents are women, which roughly represents the composition of the labour force in the RMG  sector as a whole. 

According to report findings, previously, a small share of workers had experienced some type of automation of their work, and mostly this was simply an improvement in the existing technology they were using rather than a radical re-engineering of their work, it added.

In the survey in June this year, 85% of workers reported that their work quota increased when they last got a new machine. 

However, of those that reported an increase in their workload, 71% said their salary did not change. 

The reason behind salary staying at the same level despite increased productivity might be that the new machines made the work easier which was also confirmed by the workers, added the report.

About two-thirds, 66%, said it took less time to meet their quota; 29% said it took about the same time, and 5% said it either took more time or they were not able to meet their new quota with the new machine. 

Their answers suggest that, in many cases, the new machines helped workers meet their quota more quickly, the Sanem report furthered.