One of the largest hub in India‘s $40 billion-a-year textile and garment industry who are seeking millions of dollars in compensation following a landmark court ruling last year that declared they had long been grossly underpaid.
The Madras High Court ordered that garment workers should receive a pay rise of up to 30 per cent – the first minimum wage hike for 12 years – and that they could claim arrears going back to 2014. More than 150 claims have been filed against tailoring and export garment manufacturing units in the Chennai region alone, according to data requested by the Thomson Reuters Foundation under the Right to Information Act. The claims, which would benefit at least 80,000 workers at factories around the port city, add up to more than 490 million Indian rupees ($7.6 million).
According to workers’ unions these claims are probably the tip of the iceberg as they only represent cases filed by government labour inspectors. Under the 2016 Madras court ruling, Tamil Nadu’s garment and textile workers should see their pay rise from a monthly average of Rs 4,500 to 6,500– which campaigners say is comparable to wages for textile jobs in most other states. But workers say managers have defaulted or delayed payments since the ruling, with some even introducing pay cuts.
Despite the state’s minimum wage laws, salaries continue to be “grossly low” for thousands of workers who are still not given pay slips or are often hired only as apprentices. Under the 1948 Minimum Wages Act, state governments are required to increase the basic minimum wage every five years to protect workers against exploitation, but textile manufacturers have repeatedly challenged pay rises in Tamil Nadu.
Manufacturers in Tamil Nadu say the hike is too high, putting them at a disadvantage against competitors in other states. There are workers getting more than the minimum wage. The new norms are not distinguishing clearly between skilled and non-skilled workers, says S Shaktivel of the Tirupur Exporters’ Association.
