3 days ago
Madras High Court grants interim stay to G.O. on minimum wages for hosiery workers
The Madras High Court has granted interim stay to implementation of a government order issued by the Tamil Nadu government in February this year regarding minimum wages for workers in the garment industries in Tiruppur.
Trade union sources said the Hosiery Minimum Wages Act 1960 was revised in 2016 and in 2018 a clause of domestic knitwear workers was added to it. In January last year, the government issued a draft on fixing minimum wages for the garment unit workers based on the Hosiery Minimum Wages Act. The final order was released in February this year. However, according to the new order, the workers will suffer a DA reduction of ₹1,700 a month.
The trade unions challenged this order in the High Court and the Court has issued a stay. The CITU banian worker union general secretary in Tiruppur G. Sampath said the garment unit workers were mostly paid based on a tripartite wage agreement involving the managements and the trade unions. However, there were issues in the way the minimum wages had been calculated. The new order was applicable to workers in the domestic and export units. Since a monthly reduction of ₹1,700 would hit the workers, it was decided to go to the court. 'We need to follow up the case closely and ensure that the workers get the right wages,' he said.
