The CITU-affiliated Baniyan and General Workers Union, one of the major trade unions in Tirupur knitwear cluster, is planning to intensify its demand for introduction of house rent allowance (HRA) component in the textile workers’ wages.
Migrant workers
“House rentals are going up through the roofs at a high pace in Tirupur and the predominant migrant workers in the cluster are finding it difficult to afford accommodation costs without the house rent allowance,” pointed out C. Moorthy, the president of Baniyan and General Workers Union.
According to the trade unionists here, the unions and workers have been asking for house rent allowance in the talks held to revise the wage pacts on the past occasions.
“But on each time, the textile association representatives have been promising the issuance of such perks from the next agreement period onwards without subsequently fulfilling the promises,” said Mr. Moorthy.
The union had taken a decision to conduct a campaign to create awareness among the workers of their rights to get house rent allowance.
“If the HRA is not given during the coming wage revision, the workers should stop going for the work till the perk was allotted,” said Mr. Moorthy.
The union had come down heavily on units that did not follow the stipulations under the Factory Act.
“Majority of the units in the cluster did not have parking spaces for vehicles, canteens and adequate number of toilets on the premises. The authorities should not hesitate to take action against such units,” Mr. Moorthy said.
