Labor Related Challenges of Textile and Garment Industries in the Ethiopian Industrial Parks: The Perspective of Stakeholders

Abstract

Ethiopia has been actively targeting foreign capital in recent years, notably in labor-intensive industries, with the goal of building an export-based economy and subsequently pushing the country towards industrialization. To realize this ambition, the country devised two consecutives five-year plans since 2010. The plans are aimed at bringing structural transformation in the economy both in terms of employment and production making use of the labor-intensive industries as a springboard. However, the country’s infant labor-intensive industries, particularly in the garment sector are facing huge challenges when it comes to managing the country’s labor force that have not been used to the industrial work culture the industry requires from its workforce. This chapter addressed the view of major stakeholders of the sector based on field-based empirical data and found out that employers in the sector have encountered a series of labor-related challenges, including high absenteeism and labor turnover rates, a lack of skilled labor, and a poor working culture among the workers employed in the sector. However, the participants of the study have also suggested that the inability of the workers in the textile and apparel sector to sustain their livelihoods with the low wage they were being paid in the sector coupled with the lack of respect for the workers’ rights exacerbated the problem of retaining the workforce in the sector. Overall, the study concludes that in order for the industry to thrive and accelerate the country’s industrial revolution, it must overcome a number of serious labor-related challenges and this, in turn, requires the participation of various stakeholders in the sector, mainly the government and the sector’s employers.