B.S.T.

KARIYAWASAM

REG NO 50580300

MCU4203

ASSIGNMENT NO

606

I agreed to what the extract says in the critique of garment industry in Sri Lanaka. If we look in to the current context of Sri Lankan garment industry, we can notice that female workers predominated in the garment industry by 87 % while the male workers contribution is 13 %. The garment industry in Sri Lanka is women-oriented industry. However, the management grade is dominated by male workers and operative grade is led by female workers. Most of female workers are employed as operators in the garment field. The share of females in occupations of machine operators and others is over 90 percent. There is equal participation of both sexes in pattern making, quality controlling, merchandising, designing and quality assurance. This table 2 depicts how the workforce of garment industry is composed by 1998. Even when we consider the present situation, we cannot expect the important change of the proportions of male and female contribution to the work force of garment industry. Nonetheless, none paid thorough attention to the feminine gender worked for garment factories leaving female workers are cheap and submissive labour suppliers. Labour force participations

Table 1

I just wanted show to which degree the female work force may become the most pivotal factor for the productivity and competitiveness in the international market. Higher turnover and higher absenteeism of the female workers than the average affect the productivity of garment industry and this will restraint factors to the enhance productivity of garment industry.

Table 2

B.S.T. KARIYAWASAM

REG NO 50580300

MCU4203

ASSIGNMENT NO

606

The competitiveness in international market, productivity and factors affecting the productivity are inextricably linked. In the discussion paper on Productivity, Competitiveness and Job Quality in Garment Industry in Sri Lanka by Saman Kelegama and Roshen Epaarachchi they introduce dependence of competitiveness on productivity and job quality in following diagram.

Chart 1

Especially these garment factories are clustered to particular industrial areas. These are termed as EPZ (export processing zone) or FTZ (free trade zones). Therefore, these areas are congested and the environment of these areas is not conducive for especially for female workers. Many female workers tend to find their accommodation within the vicinity of their factory. Therefore, available accommodations for the female workers are generally of poor condition due to increasing congestion around the urban garment factories and Free Trade Zone areas. The lodging facilities are commonly small rooms with limited additional facilities and inadequate sanitation. The security for female workers is at lower level and hence, female workers are vulnerable even in their accommodation. Furthermore, the rent can constitute a significant proportion of the workers salaries. Even though the government took measures to address, the issue by building up hostels it was far from the requirement and the problem remained almost as usual. Following chart was adopted from Productivity, Competitiveness and Job Quality in Garment Industry in Sri Lanka A discussion paper Prepared by Saman Kelegama and Roshen Epaarachchi for Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka. It reflects to which extent workers are provided with transportation and hostel facilities in the industry

B.S.T. KARIYAWASAM

REG NO 50580300

MCU4203

ASSIGNMENT NO

606

The poor working condition in the factory can be caused by the various reasons such as hazardous factory layout with cramped workspace, lack basic facilities such as canteens, toilets, etc., and in many cases, regular breaks for using these Facilities are not provided. In particular, sexual harassment is the vital stress-generating factor for female workers. Table 3

In the ILO-SAAT panel discussion, Sri Lankan government representative admitted that the wages for both male and female are the same, but the female workers endure other forms of difficulty, e.g., harassments, hardship in travel to and from work, dual responsibility of family and work, etc. Even though there are numerous labour regulations female workers have to work for long hours to achieve the production targets. They have to work for night shift without appropriate facilities. Even if some factories provide transport, most do not. Moreover, some of the surrounding roads are not adequately lit at night and female workers in some cases encounter harassment and other unsafe situations. When workers are coming to work by using of unpunctual public transportation services it may cause a stress to some extent. When the stress exceeds the bearable level and it is not controlled it will become psychological stress. The productivity of female workers may diminish due to higher turnover and absenteeism, which are caused by the psychological stress. Since female employment in the garment industry is largely concentrated in low-skilled and unskilled jobs, most female workers unfortunately would not benefit to the same extent from the rising trend in wage rates. It is even possible that less skilled female employees would be replaced by skilled male employees, thus widening the gender discrepancy in division of labour. Women workers, therefore, need to be specifically targeted for human skills development. Other factors, which contribute to such situation, are poor interpersonal relationships at the work place, autocratic management style, lack of variety in work, low use of skills, poor pay, and low value given to work in the society, especially for the female garment labour. We should consider to which extent the authorities have addressed the above issues and the remedy for those to upkeep the especially female workers life in garment industry.

B.S.T. KARIYAWASAM

REG NO 50580300

MCU4203

ASSIGNMENT NO

606

. The study of Productivity, Competitiveness and Job Quality in Garment Industry in Sri Lanka by Saman Kelegama and Roshen Epaarachchi reveals where our female workers are and how to cope with those issues in the garment context. Overall, female garment workers are almost ill-treated in comparison to the male workers. Female workers are in Sri Lankan garment field vulnerable and sensitive to those factors the productivity. Most of rural women come to find employments in garment field with pressure of the rising expenditures and future expectations but with unfavourable situation may cause absenteeism and higher turnover of those workers. Here table 4 shows garment absenteeism and turnover of both female and male workers.

Table 4

According to findings of study, these factors negatively affect the productivity of the industry because those factors and productivity has the relationship as depicted in the Chart 1. To alleviate poor working condition and promote enhanced working conditions are inseparably linked to improved productivity and the failure to admit this has contributed to low productivity in increasingly competitive international environment