The minimum bonus scale should be 20 per cent of the annual salary and the workers employed on piece-rate wages as well as on contract too should be compulsorily given the bonus. These are the main points being raised by the trade unions in connection with the Deepavali bonus disbursal in Tirupur knitwear cluster.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions State secretary M. Chandran pointed out that the rules stipulate clearly that workers employed on piece-rate wages and those working on contract were also eligible for bonus on a par with other employees.
“A minimum 20 per cent bonus can be easily given considering the claims made by knitwear sector industrialists that the exports and domestic sales had gone up steadily during the past few financial years and now have aims to touch Rs. 1,00,000 crore overall turnover from the cluster by 2020.
“Unfortunately, a large section of industrialists highlight issues of financial constraints only when the time comes for disbursal of bonus. It tells that many unit owners were not much concerned about the welfare of their workers”, he said.
Trade union leaders pointed out that the migrant labourers coming from West Bengal, Odisha and a few North-East States, constituting a large chunk of the workforce now, were mostly unaware of their rights about the festival bonus entitlement.
Awareness programmes
Hence, the representatives of trade unions have started awareness programmes to tell the workers that the problems pertaining to bonus disbursal could be brought to the notice of the labour unions. Such moves would be helpful to initiate talks with the respective unit owners for an amicable settlement, the trade union leaders said.
