Sazid Ahmad

Sazid is an aspiring scholar focused on advancing scholarship on labour standards. His primary research interest revolves around working conditions in global supply chains (GSC). He is particularly interested in worker voice as a solution to improving these conditions, the central subject of his thesis and related projects.

A mixed-method and interdisciplinary scholar, Sazid is skilled in both quantitative and qualitative methods. He integrates broader social sceinces literature to supplement Employment Relations and GSC scholarship. His research interests also include Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), collective voice/worker mobilization, precarity, and organizational justice.

Sazid has also presented papers as the lead author on GSC issues at three conferences of the Labour and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and served as the session chair at one conference of LERA. He also holds an Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. His work as a class teacher led him to be Highly Commended as Departmental Class Teacher twice.

Due to his research interests and academic progress, he was selected as the recipient of the Rita Stephen Scholarship for academic years 2021/2022 till 2023, which is awarded to a PhD student for showing great aptitude in investigating inequality in the workplace.

Job Market Paper Title:

The “Social Editing” of Worker Voice and the Societal Reproduction of their Conditions: A Political Economy Analysis of 2024 RMG Protests in Bangladesh

Expertise

Labour standards in global supply chains; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Worker voice; Organizational justice; Mixed methods

Sazid has recently submitted his thesis, titled “What workers want, what they (don't) get, why they (don't) want to quit: A study of Bangladeshi Garment Workers”.

It comprises three papers. The first paper, which is co-authored with Chunyun Li and Sarah Ashwin, has been published online at the ILR Review. It examines the relationship with supervisors in enhancing worker positive affect and reducing turnover intention, highlighting the role of worker committees and private regulatory institutions.

The latter papers explore the mass protests of Bangladeshi garment workers in 2024. The second paper proposes a political-ecological model of worker movement to explain how the movement emerged spontaneously and without leadership – by utilizing informal tactics, mutual solidarity, and physical ecology of the industrial area. The third paper focuses on what the workers asked for, why they asked for them, and what they got. It draws on the wider social sciences literature to explain how worker voice is socially edited by stakeholders in the political economy such as suppliers, state, and even union organizations that are disconnected from grassroots.

Conference Presentations:

• Ahmad, S., Li, C. & Ashwin, S. 2022. The Power of Proximal Processes In Compliance: Explaining Employee Perceptions Through Affective Events Theory and Beyond. Presented at the symposium on Labor in Global Supply Chains Part I: Problematic Decoupling of Global Buyers' Practices and Working Conditions. 74th Annual conference of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), Online.
• Ahmad, S., Li, C. & Kuruvilla, S. 2024. Preventing Sexual Harassment & Verbal Abuse of Workers in GSCs. Presented at the symposium on Labor in Global Supply Chains Part I: Preventing harassment of workers at global supply chains. 76th Annual conference of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), New York, USA.
• Ahmad, S. 2025. Seizing Political Opportunities Under Global Production: How Garments Workers in Bangladesh Spontaneously Organized for Better Conditions. Presented at the symposium on Labor in Global Supply Chains II: Worker Activism and Labor Regimes in Global Supply Chains. 77th Annual conference of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), New York, USA.

Graduate Teaching Assistant - Class Teaching Experience

• MG210- CSR and International Labour Standards (2023, 2024)
• MY451/464-Introduction to Quantitative Analysis (2022-3, 2023-4)