What does it mean to be ‘ideal workers’ in the garment sector of Bangladesh? How does gender-based discrimination impact garment worker experiences? What is wage theft and how is it actioned against workers? In this article, the author addresses these questions and more by drawing on interview data, including from factory owners, managers, as well as from workers, to reveal power dynamics.
Check out the abstract below, and then click through to the main article to learn more:
Wage Theft, Secrecy, and Derealization of ‘Ideal Workers’ in the Bangladesh Garment Industry
Peer-reviewed research by: Md Shoaib Ahmed
This study addresses how violence is mobilized through wage theft in feminized workplaces thriving within the global value chain. Guided by Judith Butler’s concept of derealization, this longitudinal case study on the Bangladesh garment industry advances the current debate on violence in organization studies. First, it re-conceptualizes the notion of an ‘ideal worker’. Empirical evidence reveals that, unlike in Western societies, young and childless women in the Global South and their vulnerabilities woven into poverty, inequality, climate change, patriarchy, social stratification, and limited employment opportunities make them ‘ideal workers’. This status remains valid as long as they remain vulnerable and demonstrate no agency in resisting the discourse on dehumanization, dispossession, and displacement. Second, this study illuminates the practice of wage theft, which has emerged as a dominant form of violence in feminized workplaces. Organizations also deploy secrecy to continue theft, thereby inflicting further physical and psychological violence. This study highlights the fact that socioeconomic vulnerabilities and unresisted violence oppress a docile workforce to become ‘ideal workers’. It is a neoliberal myth that helps powerful actors shore up their power and privileges through derealization.
Click here to read the full open-access article, published in 2024 in the journal Organization Studies.
Full Reference //
Ahmed, M. S. (2024). Wage Theft, Secrecy, and Derealization of ‘Ideal Workers’ in the Bangladesh Garment Industry. Organization Studies.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Like this article? Check out more from Md Shoaib Ahmed: Workplace Bullying and Intensification of Labour Controls in the Clothing Supply Chain: Post-Rana Plaza Disaster
Knowledge Stitch amplifies academic research. If you have research you would like readers to check out, click here to suggest your work.
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash