Voices of the poor: demystifying the nexus between rights and agency of Bangladesh’s tea workers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate the true situation of rights and agency of the Bangladeshi teagarden workers, drawing insights from James Scott’s theory of ‘public’ and ‘hidden’ transcripts and employing multi-sited ethnography. We collected data through qualitative in-depth interviews, case studies, focus group discussions, and direct observation for this study. Rights, in Scottian terms, are the public transcript to produce agency of the workers but they are, of course, facades. Agency does not truly exist for tea workers. The tea companies strategically dominate the workers for their profit maximisation and industrial sustainability, which constrains workers’ individual and collective bargaining capacity. Tea companies’ shrewd manipulation of public transcripts like managerial prerogatives, worker benefits like registration and free education and even use of alcohol addiction and corruption of the police and courts allow them to pursue a hidden transcript of domination and control. Co-opted trade union leaders, supported by the ruling Party, do little to protect workers’ rights and interests but join with the companies to squelch any attempt to create truly representative trade unions.