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G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore, May 19 An in-house official panel from the office of Textile Commissioner (TC), which did a study on the working of the textile workers rehabilitation fund scheme (TWRFS) in vogue since 1986, has suggested norm relaxation of the scheme that makes the workers employed in textile unit lying closed continuously for five years or more eligible for relief under TWRFS.

If the norm relaxation gets the Centre’s nod, it will benefit workers in 161 closed non-SSI textile mills, including 43 in Tamil Nadu, that remain closed for five years and above.

The recommendation evolved from the study involving all eight regional Textile Commissioner offices on the current status of the closed textile mills vis-À-vis the amount of relief disbursed so far including the conditions of the employees who lost their jobs and the aspect of the alternative jobs secured by them after their unit’s closure has been forwarded to the Ministry of Textiles for further action, according to Mr Nagesh Mugadur, Joint Textile Commissioner, Mumbai.

At present workers of the textile units ordered closed either under the Industrial Disputes Act (under Section 25(O) or coming under an official liquidator appointed by the High Court for purpose of winding up are considered eligible for the TWRFS relief .

In both cases, it is found the lengthy legal procedures involved make workers of closed units ineligible to receive TWRFS relief depriving the workmen of timely access of the cash relief envisaged in the scheme. While in most cases the respective State Governments would rarely accede to declaration of a unit closed under the Industrial Disputes Act for fear of political ramification, getting the appointment of official liquidator by the Court would invariably take long time.

The TWRFS was introduced in 1986, as part of the national textile policy, to offer financial assistance to workers of private non-SSI closed textile units and the eligible workers would receive cash relief equivalent of their 18 months salary (based on last drawn salary) which would be proportionately disbursed for three years at 75:50:25 ratio. The stop-gap relief is to provide a cushion to workers before he finds an alternative job.

The study comes in the wake of slow progress seen in operationalising the TWRFS relief to the mill workers across the country and its suggestion to cover the cases of workers employed in units that remained closed for five years and above is, according to Mr Mugadur, to enable the affected workers getting the relief within reasonable time, otherwise the very purpose of the scheme would be defeated.

It has also suggested in its report formation of a standing committee comprising representatives of the closed mills, state government officials, members from the ESI, EPF, Labour Department for implementing the norm relaxation and this committee would also assure itself that the unit could not be rerun. The study has revealed the slow offtake of the scheme. Of the 403 closed non-SSI textiles mills accounting for 3.04 lakh displaced workers in the country as on today, only 61 mills with 94,300 workers were given relief amounting to Rs 235 crore.

Gujarat is the major beneficiary with 60,000 workers in 42 closed textile mills were given relief of Rs 151 crore.

During the current financial year, according to him, the Ministry of Textiles will disburse another Rs 40 crore as relief to the 13,000 workers of 22 closed textile mills, taking the total mills to 83. Even this would only indicate that only 20 per cent of the closed units and 36 per cent of displaced workmen would have been covered under the present eligibility guidelines of TWRFS.

More Stories on : Textiles | Human Resources | Tamil Nadu

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