Close on the heels of garment workers protesting in Bengaluru over the controversial PF (provident fund) amendment that allowed withdrawal of contributions only when a worker attains 58 years of age, trouble has spread to Tirupur, the largest garment export hub in the country.
About 3,000 workers, mostly migrant workers, staged a protest across three garment units in the knitwear town on Tuesday, prompting exporters to send a letter to the union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, seeking immediate withdrawal of the amendment.
The government withdrew the amendment late Tuesday evening.
Stating that they cannot wait till they attain the threshold prescribed by the amendment, the workers wanted a final settlement of all their dues including the PF money immediately.
"Several issues have cropped up and three export garment units in Tirupur faced the wrath of migrant workers from North India and it was difficult to convince the workers that the decision was taken by the government," said A Sakthivel, president, Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA). Tirupur exported garments to the tune of about 21,000 crore in 2014-15.
Referring to the Bengaluru agitation, he said that this may spread to Tirupur if immediate steps are not taken by the union labour minister to withdraw the controversial PF notification. "The notification has created a lot of ripples in the Tirupur knitwear garment cluster, which employs 400 thousand workers directly, and out of this, 70% are women," Sakthivel stated.
"It was a Herculean task for the managements to convince the workers," he said. "The garment sector is the second highest employment provider after agriculture. A majority of them are women. If any untoward incidents happen, a lot of people will get affected," the TEA president said.
"We are more concerned about meeting delivery schedules given to our buyers and any deviation from this will not only affect us financially but also affect our position as a reliable supplier in their eyes. We could also lose future orders," he said.
About 3,000 workers, mostly migrant workers, staged a protest across three garment units in the knitwear town on Tuesday, prompting exporters to send a letter to the union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, seeking immediate withdrawal of the amendment.
The government withdrew the amendment late Tuesday evening.
Stating that they cannot wait till they attain the threshold prescribed by the amendment, the workers wanted a final settlement of all their dues including the PF money immediately.
"Several issues have cropped up and three export garment units in Tirupur faced the wrath of migrant workers from North India and it was difficult to convince the workers that the decision was taken by the government," said A Sakthivel, president, Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA). Tirupur exported garments to the tune of about 21,000 crore in 2014-15.
Referring to the Bengaluru agitation, he said that this may spread to Tirupur if immediate steps are not taken by the union labour minister to withdraw the controversial PF notification. "The notification has created a lot of ripples in the Tirupur knitwear garment cluster, which employs 400 thousand workers directly, and out of this, 70% are women," Sakthivel stated.
"It was a Herculean task for the managements to convince the workers," he said. "The garment sector is the second highest employment provider after agriculture. A majority of them are women. If any untoward incidents happen, a lot of people will get affected," the TEA president said.
"We are more concerned about meeting delivery schedules given to our buyers and any deviation from this will not only affect us financially but also affect our position as a reliable supplier in their eyes. We could also lose future orders," he said.