Hosiery manufacturers in Tirupur cluster have voiced against any further fixation of minimum rates of wages for workers in the hosiery sector here.
The opposition comes in the wake of the initiation of process by the authorities concerned in the State who had constituted a committee for revision of minimum wages for employment in hosiery sector after a gap of over five decades.
South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association president A. C. Eswaran told The Hindu that besides the fact that the said committee did not even have a representative from our association, the major representative body for hosiery manufacturers in the entire South India, there was no need for fixing minimum wage rates at a time when wage revision pact were signed frequently in clusters like Tirupur.
“If the rate is fixed at the government level, the revision comes only after a long gap like in the last case. Whereas, we are already giving upward revision to the workers once in four years and the continuation of this system is essential for smooth working relationship and camaraderie between the employers and the workers,” he said. .
According to the entrepreneurs here, fixation of minimum wages for any industry could arise only when the industrial establishment concerned have no negotiating machinery with workmen or their unions for periodic revision of wages.
“In the main hosiery clusters like Tirupur, agreements are signed on wages for specific periods and on its expiry, fresh negotiations and settlement were made before the Labour Department officials as per the provisions stipulated by the Industrial Disputes Act. So, the minimum wage fixation is not needed at all,” pointed out the hosiery unit owners.
