Worker harassment in garment industries: a study of select garment industries in Bengaluru

Abstract

The present study is aimed assessing the extent of harassment experienced by employees of various garment industries in and around Bengaluru city. A total of 480 garment workers were randomly selected from 5 garment factories including men and women. They were administered a semi-structured schedule developed by the researcher with the help of experts in the field. The schedule elicited the information on Harassment & abuse and types of abuse. Data collection was done in one setting by the researcher for a span of 6 months. Chi-square tests were applied for the responses obtained by the respondents. Results revealed that On the whole 12.5% of the respondents indicated one of the forms of Physical, psychological, sexual, and verbal harassment in their workplace. of the 12.5% of the employees reported harassment, majority of the respondents (86.7%) agreed that Verbal harassment by supervisors existed. Majority of the respondents were of the opinion that they didn't have fixed targets (93.0%) and 97.7% of them indicated that they were warnings if targets were not achieved. A large majority of them indicated (97.7%) that they leave the company at their will and there existed defined disciplinary system (97.7%). Lastly, suggestions for reducing harassment and abuse have been delineated.