No end to work, no pay rise: Private sector employees crushed by exploitation

Persistent rain. The roads of Mirpur, Kazipara and Shewrapara in Dhaka are submerged in waist-deep water. Yet, private sector employees have no choice but to make their way to work. Struggling against a crisis of public transport and severe waterlogging, they must head to their offices while getting drenched.

There is no special exemption for arriving late due to ‘waterlogging.’ However, far more intense than the agonising commute on the roads is the mental and structural exploitation they must endure within the four walls of the office.

Investigations reveal that the lives of a large section of the country's private sector employees are, in reality, passing through a ‘hand-to-mouth’ cycle. Despite appearing in corporate attire with ID cards hanging from their necks, their pockets end up empty at the end of the month. Amid current high inflation, as they struggle to balance rising transport fares and the increasing cost of living, these workers almost forget their own basic and human rights.

The primary crisis for private sector employees is the stagnation of promotions and nominal increments year after year. Arnab Rahman, who has been working at a private marketing firm in Dhaka for five years, shared his experience, noting that he has remained in the same position throughout his tenure. While the workload has doubled, his increment has been negligible. He stated that surviving on the same salary is becoming impossible in a market with over 9 per cent inflation.

Although the Labour Act mandates 48 hours of work per week, they are forced to toil for 10 to 12 hours every day without any overtime or transport allowance for the extra labour.

Ahsan Miju, a mid-level official at an export-oriented firm, had the same concerns. He noted that there is no fixed schedule for work, even holidays are often spent on office duties. He alleged that qualified workers are being undervalued due to ‘dirty’ internal office politics and sycophancy.

Despite having the necessary qualifications, many find their promotions stalled simply because they are not in the ‘good books’ of the boss. Honest employees, falling victim to such politics are suffering from constant mental depression.

The picture of exploitation in the private sector turns even grimmer when the threat of termination looms over minor excuses or personal disagreements. An employee of a reputed media house, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared that a colleague was suddenly fired due to the boss's personal grudge. Even his dues were withheld under unjust pretexts. He lamented that there is no job security in the private sector. One can lose his job at any moment.

According to private sector researchers, this disparity becomes even more stark during announcements of new pay commissions and salary hikes for the public sector. While the 9th National Pay Scale for government employees is being implemented in phases from 1 July, with the minimum basic salary jumping 142 per cent to Tk 20,000, the outlook for private sector workers remains bleak. While government employees enjoy multi-billion taka allocations and a festive mood, private sector workers are left in a state of absolute misery.

Despite the 2015 Labour Rules mandating benefits such as provident funds, gratuity and group insurance, most private owners keep these facilities limited to paper only. Consequently, these workers have no job security, no pensions and lack any minimal financial or social safety nets.

It is worth noting that while the Bangladesh Labour Act-2006 and the Labour Rules-2015 outline various facilities and protections for private sector staff, there is no effective implementation at the field level. The government had taken an initiative to draft new ‘Service Rules’ for private employees, with the review expected to be completed in May. However, as July nears its end, there has been no visible progress on those rules.

Urban and economic analysts point out that millions of valuable man-hours are lost daily due to Dhaka’s waterlogging and transport crises. The entire financial and mental toll of this lost time is borne solely by private employees. While productivity drops due to time wasted on the roads, workers are forced to put in extra hours to compensate for the loss.

The water on the streets may recede when the rain stops, but the long-standing "waterlogging" of invisible exploitation and wage stagnation in the lives of millions of private sector employees shows no signs of clearing anytime soon.