Coimbatore : The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) has released an improved version of code/guidelines for employment in textile industry by including employment of migrant, contract workers in addition to the women workers.
Coimbatore : The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) has released an improved version of code/guidelines for employment in textile industry by including employment of migrant, contract workers in addition to the women workers.
Kannegi Packianathan, Chairperson , Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women released the guidelines today.
Briefing the press on various measures undertaken by SIMA and the women's commission she stated that "Women constitute 75% of the total work force in the textile mills of TN. Various measures have been initiated by the TN Women's Commission to safeguard their welfare at work place".
She added that SIMA has come up with an improved code/ guidelines to help this initiative. Though a code has been in place since 2010, this improved version has included two important issues.
Sexual harassment at workplace act and TN hostels for women and children act have been taken into consideration in the improved version.
"SIMA and the commission will take up iniatives to spread awareness among the textile mills to comply to the guidelines", she noted.
Briefing on the internal complaints committee, the Chairperson said "Law enforces that an organization which has 10 or more employees must constitute an internal committee to receive and redress complaints on sexual harassment at workplace".
"We are educating the women labourers to register the issues faced by them to the ICC. In a bid to take care of the emotional well being of women labourers, we are planning to appoint counsellors to help them tackle psychological issues", she opined.
Speaking on the occassion, P.Nataraj, Chairman, SIMA said ,"SIMA has entered into a MoU with British Standards Institute (BSI) for providing star rating to industries that abide certain standards on various fronts including working conditions, environmental adherence and waste management".
He also mentioned that the level of compliance and wage rates in TN are much better compared to any other state in the country.
K.Jagadeesan, Addtional Director, Directorate of Industrial safety and Health and K.Selvaraju, Secretary General, SIMA were also present during the event.