The Hindu Business Line : `Restore wage board for textile workers'

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Coimbatore Jan. 31 The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) Tamil Nadu unit has urged the Government to bring back the system of wage board for the textile workers as nearly three lakh have lost confidence in the Special Industrial Tribunal adjudicating their wage dispute.

"It is almost eight years since the textile workers' wages dispute was referred to the Special Industrial Tribunal constituted in the State and no finality could be reached yet in the matter and the workers are languishing with very low wages given to them even as the State is giving birth to a new textile unit every day due to the booming textile market," said Mr P.L. Subbiah, State INTUC President.

Wage distortion

To buttress his demand for restoration of wage board for the textile workers which was in vogue until 1970s, the trade union leader who is also the President of INTUC's All India Textile Workers' Federation, said the joint action committee of the major textile workers' unions in the State all along had taken an active role in collective bargaining with the mill managements becoming defunct.

While the old units continue to pay an average per day wages of Rs 260-270, most new units, on the contrary, offer a lower wage that ranges between Rs 60 and Rs 70 per day. This has led to a far greater distortion in the payment of wages.

Previous settlements

At present, there are more than 2,000 textile units in the State. Out of this, hardly in 73 or so wage settlements have been entered before the Industrial Tribunal, and these settlements have been entered by the units where there is no workers trade union.

Barring one or two, all the settlements are for a per day wage in the Rs 60-70 bracket, Mr Subbiah claimed.

He said the mills' management in the name of achieving lower production cost has cut the wages. The claims of the management bodies that a common wagenegotiation is not possible and the issue has to be settled by individual units could not be accepted as it would be near impossible to negotiate individually with all 2,000 mills.

Mr Subbiah demanded that pending the formation of a textile workers' wage board, a lump sum hike in wages should be announced by the State Government. Even as the INTUC urged the Centre to enact early amendment to the Bonus Act, to do away with the archaic notional wages and eligibility ceilings in the Act, it has also called on the Government to impose specific conditions in foreign direct investment to compel the foreign promoters to plough back their profits into Indian ventures.

More Stories on : Textiles | Trade & Labour Unions | Tamil Nadu

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