Bangladeshi Garment Industry Welfare Policies and Employee Satisfaction: An Empirical Study

The study explores workers perspectives of the welfare data as prescribed in the Bangladesh Labor Act 2006. It is to answer two questions primarily: Are labor welfare policies under this law meaningful in their impact on workers? If so, how fully are these policies enforced in the Bangladeshi global garment supply chain industry? Binary Logistic Regression is used in the study to investigate the garment workers’ perception of a negative or positive influence of welfare facilities on their overall job satisfaction. Data were collected from compliant and export-oriented factories in three Upazilas, namely Savar, Ashulia (Dhaka District), and Gazipur Sadar (Gazipur District), Bangladesh between July and August 2021. Results show that things that help worker satisfaction among workers are facilities like overtime benefits, medical services, safety measures, toilets, and lunch and day care services. As the country settings are relatively similar in terms of socio-economic status and geography, the findings of this study can be extended to garment manufacturing industries in other South Asian countries. It is an indication of workers’ sentiment toward welfare provisions. The study’s findings can guide stakeholders on how to provide more effective interventions on either side of the labor welfare space.