Knitwear unit owners have finally agreed to increase the workers’ basic wages by 33 per cent over a period of four years and also would be giving a hike in dearness, travel and marriage allowances. It has been decided to introduce a group insurance scheme for workers and issuance of identity cards to all workers in Tirupur knitwear cluster.
The revision of wages and perks were part of the new wage agreement signed between the eight trade unions and six prominent textile associations on Tuesday for a period of four years ending March 31, 2020.
The revised slabs would be implemented with retrospective effect from this April 1. The previous wage agreement ceased to exist on January 30 this year and it took more than two months for the trade unions and textile associations to come to an agreement on the conditions to be incorporated in the new pact.
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On the 33 per cent increase in basic wages, 18 per cent would be given in the first year followed by five per cent in each of the subsequent three years. Dearness allowance had been raised from Rs. 860 to Rs. 1,500 a month for Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 15,000 points. For every increase in the CPI points, 13 paise would be given. Travel allowance had been increased to Rs. 20 a day from the earlier rate of Rs. 10. Family benefit fund given to dependent of the workers who died in harness had been increased from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 17,000. Marriage allowances were doubled across all the slabs fixed in the previous wage pact.
CITU State secretary M. Chandran said that the wage pact was reasonable according to the trade unions.