The core objective of the study is to examine the performance of Employee Assistance
Program (EAP) in reducing or preventing job and life‐relevant problems of the workers of
ready‐made garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh. This study measures the competency
and commitment of the counselors in delivering EAP services. At the outset, an extensive
literature review and expert interview were conducted to identify the variables relevant to
successful EAP. Considering the identified variables, a questionnaire consists of 16
questions was developed. Data have been collected from 100 workers of different RMG
factories located in Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ). Regression analysis and
coefficient value was calculated to study the performance of EAP. The key discovery of this
study is the EAP failed to reduce job stress of the workers and conflict. Counselors were
unsuccessful to show helpful behavior and attitude to the workers. Overall EAP was not
successful in raising productivity and job satisfaction of the workers. The industry lacks
well‐trained counselor in true sense and effective training program on stress counseling
could be organized for the counselors. Relevant developmental interventions and extending
scope of EAP in the RMGs of Bangladesh are recommended in details. RMG industry of
Bangladesh is still immature to conceptualize and actualize EAP in principle and practice.
Current study may create stimuli among the practitioners to raise the applicability of EAP
in this Sector.
