Recent manifestation of some laid off RMG workers at some pockets of Dhaka and neighbouring districts brought forth a debate that was already settled. It is all about whether automation kills jobs.
Bangladeshi RMG industry in recent years inclined towards automation that requires less operators or workers at various stages of a production process. Some factories reintroduced the laid off workers to other section while the rest continue to terminate them without paying dues. Many of these angry workers descended on the streets and protested for their dues.
I once caught myself in one of these unrests in Mirpur that literally stopped the vehicular movement for half a day.
Many here tried to blame automation for this lay off and unrest.
The RMG industry and Textiles sector itself shows how hollow the argument is. From handloom to powerloom to sophisticated machineries, bevy of equipments have been introduced to this strategically crucial sector since this sector started to fetch forex for the country. Have you seen any decline in recruitment? No. What changes did unfold before us? We started to produce woven shirts, sweaters, denim pants etc that we had not produced before. Previously we were only good at producing couple of knit items. Now our knit garments industry produces highly value added items. Moreover, productivity has also increased.
With adoption of new machinery, our RMG and Textiles industry now produces more technically challenging items that bring more revenues. As revenues from manufacturing traditional item do not cease to come, exporters invested more in production of value added items. For instance, many knit exporters invested heavily on knit items that require embroidery work. To produce these high value items, they invested in embroidery machines and to train operators so that the embroidered work reflects the finest quality of craftsmanship.
It is pretty obvious from this example that sophisticated machinery not only relieves the abundant labours from producing traditional items, it also reemploys some of them on production of more high value items.
One may argue that one or two initiatives cannot be presented as examples. But five years down the line more firms will follow the successful initiatives as automation overwhelms the present production process. Automation in RMG is not a job killing process, rather it is a stage reducing process. More jobs will be created at a later date.
Pertinent would be to cite the example of industrial revolution. Similar argument was floated back then. It was widely viewed as a process to kill jobs at agricultural sector. However, industrial revolution brought the rural peasants to cities and offered them jobs at new industries. A new relationship between recruiter and employee was developed through the instrument of job contract. The rural peasants earned more by working in the industry and mechanization also revolutionized the agricultural sector in general.More environment friendly and cost effective production process was developed and introduced. Innovation in the processing and preservation and introduction of supply chain management system also made agriculture a lucrative business in the post industrial phase.
So new ideas and technologies are not job killing process but open up new alleys of opportunities in general.
Another wrong perception about automation is that it will lower wages at a certain industry. It is perhaps not the case. Wages may vary across the industry, but introduction of new technology will not drive the wages to such a low level that workers refuse to work. Wages are based on a worker's decision to buy a bucket of goods and services that are quintessential to survive at a certain point of time.Prices of goods and services go up over the years due to inflation. This must reflect on bare minimum wages, below which a worker refuses to work. As long as inflation does its work, wages are supposed to increase.
Moreover, adoption of new technology often leads to higher productivity and more revenue. This higher productivity also plays a role to raise wages of employees of all levels.
If we take a close look at the informal sector, we will see wages of rickshaw pullers and construction workers rose significantly over the years.Please note the two sectors also witnessed tremendous boom in technology in recent years.Battery-run rickshaws augmented earnings of rickshaw pullers and increasing use of machinery did not lower the wages of construction worker.
Battery-run rickshaws literally increased the wages of whole rickshaw industry, including the tri-cycle rickshaws. Meanwhile, rising food prices and higher wages in other sectors did not cause the rickshaw fare to fall in spite of the fact that overwhelming number of rickshaws ply over the streets.
In construction industry of Dhaka, inflation coupled with use of machinery and higher wages in other sectors also raised the wages in this industry.
In a nutshell, argument floated in favour of automation kills jobs sounds hollow at the end of the day. The Buggles back in late '70s composed a popular song on the wake of arrival of VCR called " Video killed the radio star". In the course of time, title of the song was proved wrong. Radio Stars were temporarily went off the radars of people's memory. But internet and mobile phone, dotted with FM radio, resurrected those Radio Stars.Now we have more FM radio stations and radio jockeys. Sometimes we watch live some radio programmes on social media or TV and simultaneously listen to the programmes on Radio. Technology is the healer, not the killer.
Bangladeshi RMG industry in recent years inclined towards automation that requires less operators or workers at various stages of a production process. Some factories reintroduced the laid off workers to other section while the rest continue to terminate them without paying dues. Many of these angry workers descended on the streets and protested for their dues.
I once caught myself in one of these unrests in Mirpur that literally stopped the vehicular movement for half a day.
Many here tried to blame automation for this lay off and unrest.
The RMG industry and Textiles sector itself shows how hollow the argument is. From handloom to powerloom to sophisticated machineries, bevy of equipments have been introduced to this strategically crucial sector since this sector started to fetch forex for the country. Have you seen any decline in recruitment? No. What changes did unfold before us? We started to produce woven shirts, sweaters, denim pants etc that we had not produced before. Previously we were only good at producing couple of knit items. Now our knit garments industry produces highly value added items. Moreover, productivity has also increased.
With adoption of new machinery, our RMG and Textiles industry now produces more technically challenging items that bring more revenues. As revenues from manufacturing traditional item do not cease to come, exporters invested more in production of value added items. For instance, many knit exporters invested heavily on knit items that require embroidery work. To produce these high value items, they invested in embroidery machines and to train operators so that the embroidered work reflects the finest quality of craftsmanship.
It is pretty obvious from this example that sophisticated machinery not only relieves the abundant labours from producing traditional items, it also reemploys some of them on production of more high value items.
One may argue that one or two initiatives cannot be presented as examples. But five years down the line more firms will follow the successful initiatives as automation overwhelms the present production process. Automation in RMG is not a job killing process, rather it is a stage reducing process. More jobs will be created at a later date.
Pertinent would be to cite the example of industrial revolution. Similar argument was floated back then. It was widely viewed as a process to kill jobs at agricultural sector. However, industrial revolution brought the rural peasants to cities and offered them jobs at new industries. A new relationship between recruiter and employee was developed through the instrument of job contract. The rural peasants earned more by working in the industry and mechanization also revolutionized the agricultural sector in general.More environment friendly and cost effective production process was developed and introduced. Innovation in the processing and preservation and introduction of supply chain management system also made agriculture a lucrative business in the post industrial phase.
So new ideas and technologies are not job killing process but open up new alleys of opportunities in general.
Another wrong perception about automation is that it will lower wages at a certain industry. It is perhaps not the case. Wages may vary across the industry, but introduction of new technology will not drive the wages to such a low level that workers refuse to work. Wages are based on a worker's decision to buy a bucket of goods and services that are quintessential to survive at a certain point of time.Prices of goods and services go up over the years due to inflation. This must reflect on bare minimum wages, below which a worker refuses to work. As long as inflation does its work, wages are supposed to increase.
Moreover, adoption of new technology often leads to higher productivity and more revenue. This higher productivity also plays a role to raise wages of employees of all levels.
If we take a close look at the informal sector, we will see wages of rickshaw pullers and construction workers rose significantly over the years.Please note the two sectors also witnessed tremendous boom in technology in recent years.Battery-run rickshaws augmented earnings of rickshaw pullers and increasing use of machinery did not lower the wages of construction worker.
Battery-run rickshaws literally increased the wages of whole rickshaw industry, including the tri-cycle rickshaws. Meanwhile, rising food prices and higher wages in other sectors did not cause the rickshaw fare to fall in spite of the fact that overwhelming number of rickshaws ply over the streets.
In construction industry of Dhaka, inflation coupled with use of machinery and higher wages in other sectors also raised the wages in this industry.
In a nutshell, argument floated in favour of automation kills jobs sounds hollow at the end of the day. The Buggles back in late '70s composed a popular song on the wake of arrival of VCR called " Video killed the radio star". In the course of time, title of the song was proved wrong. Radio Stars were temporarily went off the radars of people's memory. But internet and mobile phone, dotted with FM radio, resurrected those Radio Stars.Now we have more FM radio stations and radio jockeys. Sometimes we watch live some radio programmes on social media or TV and simultaneously listen to the programmes on Radio. Technology is the healer, not the killer.
