Abstract
Sri Lankan women who are employed in Export Processing Zones (EPZs) work in a range of factories. A crosssection of female EPZ workers (n = 2304) representing 6 EPZs were surveyed as part of this study, with the majority in the textile and garment industry. Largely qualitative or small-scale research has demonstrated that textile and garment workers are often subject to poor social respect, derogatory comments and exposed to harsh or poor working conditions. Of particular interest was exploring in greater detail whether there were any quantifiably significant work-related or societal differences between female EPZ workers in textile and garment factories (n = 1878), compared to those employed in ‘other’ factory types (n = 426). Measuring ‘objective’ work conditions, Mann- Whitney U tests demonstrated significantly lower earnings and savings among textile and garment workers compared to those who worked in ‘other’ factories. Pearson’s chi-square test of contingencies revealed that although reports of abuse and harassment were generally low, textile and garment workers were more likely to experience verbal abuse. Regardless of such negativity, the majority of women within this study reported high rates of empowerment as a result of their experiences working in EPZs – largely irrespective of factory type. These statistical findings suggested that the different ‘objective’ workplace experiences (and to some extent, ‘subjective’ treatment) of female EPZ workers across textile and garment and ‘other’ factory types, may have little to do with their overall sense of personal achievement or inclusion, feeling empowered as a result of having been engaged in work. Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences 2015 38(1): 63-77
Highlights
The movement towards economic liberalism that took place in the late 1970s in Sri Lanka has shifted work policies from import-substitution-oriented industrialisation to export-oriented industrialisation (Arunatilake, 2012)
These results indicated that respondents working in texile and garment Export Processing Zones (EPZs) were often disadvantaged across several work-related variables, compared to those employed in ‘other’ factory types
What is evident is that despite exposure to poorer ‘objective’ work conditions and some ‘subjective’ negative experiences than ‘other’ factory employees, textile and garment worker responses indicated comparable levels of ‘empowerment’ and ‘social inclusion’. This indicated that the absence of negative ‘subjective’ experiences in the workplace was potentially more important than the presence of ‘objective’ factors, such as lower pay or hours spent at work. The majority of both cohorts had not experienced any abuse and a near equal minority of each sub sample had been exposed to public humiliation, an encouraging finding which was at odds with the literature regarding the perceived treatment of EPZ workers (Engman et al, 2007)
Summary
The movement towards economic liberalism that took place in the late 1970s in Sri Lanka has shifted work policies from import-substitution-oriented industrialisation to export-oriented industrialisation (Arunatilake, 2012). It has been argued that textile and garment industries in particular, are subject to negative external pressure as a result of economic globalisation (Cole, 2005).The last decades of the 20th Century saw the combined efforts of various human-rights organisations, human service agencies, religious groups and worker collectives (including the ILO) in attempting to formally document the circumstances of workers Together, they created greater public and global awareness of several labour and social justice concerns in Sri Lanka, including discrimination against women, the use of child workers and the emergence of ‘sweatshops’ (Heward, 1997; Gordon & Turner, 2000). Demographic and work profiles, as well as personal experiences and perceived status were investigated in greater depth vis-à-vis new quantitative analysis, using SPSS Statistics 20.0
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