Ahmed 2022.pdf (130.61 kB)
Workplace bullying and intensification of labour controls in the clothing supply chain: post-rana plaza disaster
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 06:00 authored by Shoaib AhmedShoaib Ahmed, Shahzad UddinThis article examines workplace bullying and the intensification of labour controls in the clothing supply chain. It appears that extreme forms of bullying are deployed to intensify labour controls, including locking workers in, frequent wage cuts, setting moveable targets and carrying out intense observations. The context of this study is surplus value-starved clothing factories in Bangladesh. Global supply chains’ production regimes and the absence of state protections and trade unions enable factory managers to systematically deploy bullying tactics to achieve production targets. Drawing on Burawoy’s works, this article advances the debate of how workplace bullying is impacted by wider structural conditions with managerial strategies of coercion in factories. It is argued here that when the state intervenes in the factory only to protect and preserve capitalists’ interests, explicitly and implicitly, coercive strategies of control turn into extreme bullying on the shopfloor. Shoaib Ahmed and Shahzad Uddin won the LERA 2023 award for this article.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Work, Employment and SocietyISSN
0950-0170Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
36Page range
539-556Department affiliated with
- Accounting and Finance Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2023-01-17First Open Access (FOA) Date
2023-01-17First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2023-01-17Usage metrics
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