Health, safety and productivity in garment in Bangladesh

project summary

The project creates new and exploratory knowledge about sustainable co-development between occupational health and safety (OHS) and productivity in the readymade garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh. The objective will be reached by studying the characteristics of the relationships between the RMG buyers and suppliers and how external pressure from buyers towards OHS and productivity improvements can be translated into sustainable advancements for the suppliers. The project is theoretically framed in an extended version of a capability maturity-model integrated with a safety maturity model.

Drawing on this model, the conditions affecting OHS and productivity will be explored by means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in a baseline study of 50 firms. The result of this research will be combined with theoretical elements from OHS, supply chain management, operations management and organization theory and developed into specific recommendable methods for concerted OHS and productivity improvements.

The resulting methods will be implemented and tested in 12 suppliers. Sustainability will be tested in follow up studies. The knowledge thus gained will subsequently be disseminated to the scientific community, the stakeholders in the garment industry in Bangladesh, and Danish and European buyers. This project thereby aims at directly and indirectly (i.e. through disseminations) improving OHS practices and productivity among Bangladeshi RMG suppliers.