Reframing employee voice: a case study in Sri Lanka’s export processing zones

Samanthi J Gunawardana

Work, Employment & Society, 2014, vol. 28, issue 3, 452-468

Abstract: Labour-intensive workplaces in export processing zones (EPZs) are typically characterized as ‘sweatshop-like’, devoid of voice mechanisms. Using ethnographic data in a Sri Lankan EPZ apparel factory and focusing on social interaction on the shop floor, the findings demonstrated the way workers exercised formal and informal voice individually and collectively. These findings are understood against a theoretical dialogue between interdisciplinary perspectives of voice across different bodies of literature. Ethnographic insights on the enactment of voice illuminate the importance of worker agency and the social and cultural contextual nature of exercising voice in the workplace.

Keywords: ethnography; export processing zones; free trade zones; gender; informal voice; Sri Lanka; voice; women workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:28:y:2014:i:3:p:452-468

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